The Good Shepherd: Season One
by Dingo32
Summary: Carrie White-the first human biotic who unleashed telekinetic terror at her prom when pushed too far, the only known natural human biotic. When the committee for transhuman study draws a blank for development of a safer biotic implant authorization is given to exhume her body for research purposes. But is she as dead as everybody thinks?
1. Pilot: Dead or Alive?

**The Good Shepherd**

 **Pilot Episode: Dead or Alive?**

Mass Effect is owned by Bioware and Carrie is owned by Stephen King.

The 2013 version of Carrie is owned by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Productions and director Kimberly Pierce.

The only things I own are this crossover of the two and any original characters that may be featured.

 **Author's Note: I've corrected Burn's first name in this chapter-I had it as Myron but if you look at the signature on his Email in Mass Effect 2 it is actually Martin-sorry for the mistake.**

 **ssssssss**

 _My boyfriend and most of my friends died that night, but I know what I saw._

 _You want an explanation? Carrie had some sort of power, but she was just like me, like any of you-she had hopes and she had fears and we pushed her._

 _And you can only push someone so far before they break._

Susan Snell giving her statement at the White Commission, October 1st 2015.

 **ssssssss**

 _One thing we can be certain of is that biotics and bullying mix like fire and gasoline._

 _It was a mistake to turn over training of these kids to someone like Vyrnnus Cirix._

Doctor Karin Chakwas in an interview with the Alliance News Network while treating the survivors of Biotic Acclimation And Temperance June 12th 2169.

 **ssssssss**

July 1st 2169, Alliance Research and Development; Arcturus Station.

Project Director Martin Burns rubbed at his right temple with the tips of his fingers to relieve the tension headache that was starting there as he listened to the report on the side effects that were still emerging from the L2 biotic implants that he had headed development for.

"We need something better for our biotics than the L2 implants that you rushed into service Burns," Professor David Chambers told the flustered project director in no uncertain terms "years later those poor kids from BAAT are suffering with all manner of horrific side effects-and the latest group will have to deal with them too."

"Some of those kids are nearly crippled," Major Steven Hackett pointed out as he finally spoke up in the meeting "And those that aren't may find themselves dealing with a life threatening distraction due to those side effects should they choose to serve in the Alliance Navy. I agree with Professor Chambers."

"I have no idea where to start in development of something like that," Burns sighed as he folded his hands in front of him "If I had an idea of where to begin then maybe-."

"The Asari are naturally biotic and as such they don't need a biotic implant," Hackett suggested "maybe we could talk the Asari consulate into sharing some information on the physiology of their people. Learning more about the neural structure of such a natural biotic might give us an idea of where to start development of an implant that is safe for use."

Professor Chambers shook his head.

"Asari physiology is too different from ours, you wouldn't be able to apply the knowledge to a human subject."

"So what then?" Hackett asked.

"Wait," Director Burns murmured, his face taking on a thoughtful look as an idea occurred to him "the first human biotic, Carrie White. She was a natural biotic just like the Asari are, and just like them she didn't need an implant."

"She's been dead for over a hundred and fifty years," Chambers pointed out.

"Studying her corpse may still yield some results," Burns insisted "even if I only manage to obtain a sample of her DNA studying that may point us in the right direction."

"I'm not so okay with disturbing Miss White's rest," Hackett pointed out.

"Exactly," Chambers added "Carrie suffered terribly in life due to the abuse inflicted upon her by her peers and even her own mother. Who are we to further victimise her in death?"

"I promise that the study of Miss White's remains, should I receive permission to go ahead, will be conducted as respectfully as possible."

Chambers' brow furrowed in thought at this.

"I suppose that this at least makes such a thing acceptable if less than palatable."

"A long shot," Hackett noted after a considerable pause "a very long shot."

"Do you have a better idea?" Burns asked rhetorically "or shall we try mine?"

Hackett nodded briefly, finding himself unable to debate the fact that viable ideas were in scant supply at the moment, and they did need a safer implant pretty badly.

"I'll see what I can do about obtaining authorisation to exhume Miss White's grave."

 **ssssss**

Chamberlain Cemetery August 11th 2169.

Professor Chambers glanced briefly at his young assistant Maria Wills as the two observed the exhumation of Carrietta Natalie White's grave, ensuring that the workmen involved didn't damage the casket or the body inside.

This was somewhat ironic seeing as no one had ever shown poor Carrie this degree of respect when she was alive.

As the last of the soil was removed from the top of the coffin Chambers appraised the condition of the casket with a critical eye.

"Casket's still in reasonably sound condition aside from that massive crack in the lid," he noted "the body inside should hopefully still be in good enough shape to study."

"Strange," Maria noted thoughtfully "her headstone was cracked as well."

"Probably due to an act of vandalism," Chambers opined "I remember reading how some bastard spray painted 'Carrie White burns in hell' on her headstone a few months after her death. If I'd been around to see him do that I'd probably have castrated the son of a bitch."

"Y'know something," Maria agreed as the two of them watched the workmen attach the crane to the coffin and begin lifting it out of the grave and into the waiting skytruck "I don't blame Carrie one bit for Black Prom."

"Neither do I," Chambers agreed as he and Maria helped secure the tie down straps that would keep the coffin secure for transport "Carrie probably blamed herself though, but it's like Sue Snell said 'you can only push a person so far before they break' and you've seen that first hand."

"Yeah," Maria agreed "racist Turian asshole-my arm still aches on cold mornings."

Chambers nodded in agreement as the two climbed out of the skytruck and closed the rear doors as the vehicle began moving off.

The skytruck would transport Miss White's coffin to their research facility in New York, Chambers and Wills would follow in a skycar.

"I wonder how Kaidan is these days, I hope he's okay."

 **ssssss**

The Institute for Transhuman Studies, New York August 14th 2169.

Professor David Chambers carefully directed the men pushing the antigravity sled bearing Carrie White's coffin into the examination room, fussing over proceedings the whole time.

"Be careful," he told the man pushing the sled "she is very valuable to the Alliance."

"I know Doc," the labourer in question replied "trust me, and I know the poor girl got shafted when she was alive too."

"Yes, she did," Chambers agreed "at least this way her tragic death might actually count for something."

"I'm not so sure," the labourer replied as he finished moving the casket to where Chambers had indicated "after all this time you'll most likely not have much to study besides some dusty old bones. Even with her having been a natural biotic what can you hope to learn from that?"

"It's surprising what DNA can tell you Antonio."

The labourer-Antonio shrugged non-committally.

"If you say so-was there anything else you needed Doc?"

"No, that will be all thank you Antonio."

 **sssssss**

Maria Wills walked quickly toward the examination room that currently housed Carrie White's remains in a state of flustered urgency.

 _I'm late-I'm late. Dammit I'm late, stupid migraine._

The painkillers she had taken were finally starting to take effect however and the roaring pounding headache reminiscent of the mother of all hangovers that she had been suffering from before had faded to a dull ache and she was feeling, if not lively at least somewhat less dead.

"Doc's new pet project has arrived," Antonio told her as she passed him.

"Thanks Antonio," Maria told the workman as she breezed past him, wincing at the dull throb in her head as she reached out and touched the glowing green holographic control to open the door.

"Migraine again?" Antonio asked sympathetically.

"Yep," Maria confirmed as the door slid up with a hiss of hydraulics "you can see why I don't drink, I already know what a hangover feels like thank you very much."

"And without the fun beforehand," Professor Chambers remarked as he overheard the conversation from inside "Does that suck or what?"

"Are Turians ugly bastards with sticks up their asses?" Maria shot back as she put on her lab coat, rubber gloves, hair net and surgical mask "Sorry I'm late Professor."

Chambers smirked behind his own surgical mask at that remark, Turians were indeed less than attractive by human standards and they did tend to come across as stiff and uncompromising.

"Okay," Chambers told Wills "We're ready to start."

Working carefully the two pried the lid of the coffin loose, breaking the seal that had built up from the century and a half plus that the casket had spent underground, once the lid was loose enough Chambers grasped the edge securely.

"Brace yourself," he warned Maria "what you're about to see may be-a little rough on sensitive stomachs."

Once Maria nodded that she was prepared for whatever gruesome sight awaited Chambers carefully opened the lid of the coffin.

What they saw inside the coffin was not what they were expecting though.

"Well," Maria remarked once she found her voice again "She's-a lot easier on the eyes than I expected."

 **ssssss**

David Chambers had seen many strange and unexplained things in his time but this defied all logic.

"I don't believe it," he declared quietly as he reached down and lightly touched the dead girl's cheek with a gloved hand.

Her _still intact_ cheek, no signs of decomposition whatsoever.

"She's perfectly preserved," Maria noted in awed surprise "if her eyes weren't open I'd swear that she was just sleeping."

Chambers scanned the dead girl with his omni tool.

"Preservation of the corpse isn't due to saponification of her tissues and I'm not detecting any signs of life-not that I'd expect to after this long," he noted in mild surprise as a frown creased his brow "the phenomenon of incorruptible corpses is a scientific mystery but not unheard of, one popular theory is that it results from a crypt or coffin being sealed well enough to preserve the body-but how that happened with a crack in the lid is anybody's guess."

"The Vatican would have a field day with this," Maria remarked "she isn't even one of their saints"

"Look at the way she's lying in the coffin," Chambers added "it's like she was just dumped in there."

"She's still wearing a nightgown, or the remains of one instead of a funeral dress," Maria added "bastards didn't even bother to close her eyes."

At that exact moment Maria noticed something about the lid of the coffin, or more accurately the padded lining on the inside of it.

The lining was torn to shreds.

"Professor," Maria called quietly as she drew Chambers' attention to this.

David Chambers' eyes immediately narrowed in anger at the sight.

"They buried her alive."

"Well that explains the crack in the lid of the coffin," Maria noted sourly "and the headstone for that matter."

"Poor girl was in the ground within less than two days after her apparent death according to the records," Chambers recalled as he forced himself to calm down "and she was still alive when they buried her, they didn't even bother to check."

Chambers took several deep breaths and counted to ten in English, Salarian, Turian and Asari before continuing.

"The only reason she even got a headstone was because Sue Snell and her old Gym teacher Rita Desjarden insisted on it and covered the cost themselves."

"Needless to say a proper post mortem examination was never performed," Maria added "we should give her at least a cursory examination now."

"Okay," Chambers told Maria "Go get Antonio, there's one more thing I need from him."

 **ssssss**

With Antonio's help they managed to move Carrie's body from her coffin to the examination table-after he got over his surprise at Carrie's non decayed state that is-then Chambers began carefully cutting the tattered remains of Carrie's nightgown off of her with a pair of scissors.

Needless to say the need for an extra pair of hand's was not due to Carrie's weight as she was quite small and didn't weigh much, but picking up a corpse bridal style when it has gone into full rigor mortis is next to impossible.

Once Carrie was undressed he took stock of the marks on her body starting with her front.

"Bruises on both knees and left forearm-consistent with falling down a flight of stairs," Chambers noted as he photographed the injuries with his omni tool "also a bruise on her forehead, defensive wound on right forearm consistent with her being attacked with a knife."

"Her mother must have done this to her," Maria deduced "I remember reading that Sue Snell related seeing such wounds on Carrie as she tried to comfort her before her death, those that removed her body from the wreckage of the White bungalow also noted that such wounds were present."

"Let's see what her back looks like," Chambers suggested as he motioned for Maria to help him turn Carrie's body over.

Once Carrie was lying on her front Chambers began taking stock of the injuries on that side of her body and photographing them as he found them.

"Stab wound to her upper back consistent with a kitchen knife, bruises on both buttocks again consistent with falling down a flight of stairs, knife wound across the top of her right calf," Chambers' eyes caught on something else as he photographed that "what's this scar across her lower back?"

"Probably from her abusive mother," Maria suggested "she has a burn scar on her right shoulder too."

"My opinion of Margaret White is getting lower by the second," Chambers muttered as he and Maria turned Carrie onto her back again.

Chambers then reached down and gently closed Carrie's eyes before grabbing a sheet from a nearby cupboard and covering her with it.

"You really are beautiful," Chambers told Carrie as he covered her up "it's such a shame that you're dead."

"You okay Professor?" Maria asked him.

"Let's take a break for a while," Chambers suggested with a non committal shrug "we can begin the autopsy when we get back."

"I'll get you some coffee," Maria offered as the two of them left the room.

Less than a minute after they had left the room Carrie suddenly took a breath and her eyes snapped open.

 **ssssss**

 **Episode closing theme 'Bring Me To Life' by Evanescence.**


	2. Episode 2: Brave New World

**The Good Shepherd**

 **Episode 2: Brave New World**

 **ssssss**

Mass Effect is owned by Bioware and Carrie is owned by Stephen King.

The 2013 version of Carrie is owned by Metro Goldwyn Mayer productions and director Kimberly Pierce.

The only things I own are this crossover of the two and any original characters that may be featured.

 **ssssss**

 _Carrie White is easily the most gifted biotic of her time or ours._

 _One could count on the fingers of one hand (even if you happen to have a three fingered hand) the number of other known biotics in the galaxy who could theoretically match her level of biotic power-and all of them are Asari matriarchs._

 _They are as follows Matriarch Benezia, Justicar Samara and Aria T'loak._

 _She is also highly intelligent-when people actually take the time to explain things to her properly._

An excerpt from the personal notes of Professor David Chambers.

 **ssssss**

Unknown time, Unknown Place.

The first thing Carrie White became aware of as she woke up was that she was lying on a cold metal table and a sheet was covering her entirely, her face as well.

The next thing that Carrie noticed was that underneath the sheet she was completely naked.

This brought her bolt upright in shock as she wrapped the sheet around herself instinctively.

 _What's going on?_ The young girl wondered _how did I get here? Where is here?_

Whatever this place was it looked like some kind of laboratory as far as Carrie could tell, she didn't recognise half of the equipment but it looked sort of like the science rooms at school.

 _Am I about to be dissected?_ Carrie wondered _I wouldn't blame them for wanting to treat me like a lab freak after what I did-I killed so many people._

 _I-I killed my Momma._

Carrie buried her face in her hands, no longer caring about her state of dress or rather undress as her shoulders shook with great sobs of sorrow and remorse.

"What have I done?" Carrie whispered as guilt twisted at her heart.

She didn't know the final death toll, but Carrie doubted that very many people had made it out of the gym-and then there was the trail of destruction she had left in her wake on her way back to her house.

Every single one of those deaths were _her fault._

And worst of all-at the time she had _enjoyed_ it, but now-.

 _Okay-okay stop it Carrie-you can feel guilty later,_ the strawberry blonde telekinetic berated herself silently as she forced herself to stop crying and focus on the situation at hand _focus unless you want to be dissected like a frog-now the first question is how I got here and where here is, it looks like a lab of some kind-a very high tech lab._

Wrapping the sheet around herself again Carrie began rifling through a nearby cupboard for something to wear while wiping away her tears with one hand, coming up with nothing but a lab coat and some surgical scrubs.

 _I suppose they'll have to do,_ Carrie decided as she threw the sheet aside and quickly slipped into the scrubs and lab coat _better than walking around naked anyway_.

As she did the anatomy charts on the wall caught her eye, there was the expected chart for human anatomy but there were also others, Turian anatomy, Salarian anatomy, Asari anatomy, Elcor, Volus, Drell-.

As she was puzzling over this oddity Carrie's eyes caught sight of the holographic display of all things, displaying the date and time.

 **sssssss**

10:34 AM August 14th 2169.

 _What?_ Carrie wondered in shock as she stumbled backward and unintentionally caused several objects to float into the air and then fall loudly to the floor, literally reeling from the bombshell that had just been dropped on her.

Carrie winced at the noise and covered her mouth with both hands as she berated herself for being clumsy and making a noise that might give her more alive than expected status away.

But what bothered her more was the date displayed on the screen.

 _That can't be right, nonononono._

One hundred and fifty six years had passed since the night of her prom.

 _E-everything and everyone I knew is gone_ the distraught girl thought in a panic as she looked around the room wildly _so why am I still here?_

Her whole body shaking Carrie's eyes settled on the aged coffin lying on some kind of antigravity device beside the table she had been lying on.

 _I-I died? But I'm alive now-how is that possible?_

 _The last thing I remember I was lying on top of Momma's dead body as the house was collapsing on top of us, no wait-I remember waking up after that in a dark and confined space that I couldn't get out of, I remember trying to get free but I was still too weak and then I drifted off to sleep again._

 _Did I dream that or,_ Carrie's eyes caught sight of the upside down casket lid lying beside the place she had rested in for a century and a half and it's shredded lining _did I wake up in the coffin?_

Carrie wanted to get out of here, but as much as that were the case she knew that she had to find out more about her situation or she might well make it worse, as she looked around she caught sight of something that looked vaguely like one of the computers at school but she couldn't see a screen or keyboard.

 _Must be holographic like the clock,_ Carrie deduced _If I can figure out how to turn it on-and it isn't password protected I might be able to learn something._

After several minutes of searching Carrie's hand happened to brush over a red dot on the strange computer's chassis and the device turned on, displaying a holographic desktop screen and a holographic keyboard.

 _So it is holographic,_ Carrie thought _looks like I'm not completely stupid, now let's see what we have here, games, games, word processor, spreadsheet-Codex? Okay that looks promising._

 _Now how do I-._

Carrie couldn't see a mouse, but as she tentatively reached out and touched the Codex icon on the holographic 'screen' the computer responded and opened the file.

Carrie's eyes widened at the information on the screen, she thought for a moment before selecting the entry marked 'Mass Effect Technology'.

 _Might as well know something about the technology of the era I'm in now._

The information immediately flashed up on the screen, and Carrie found herself awestruck at what was described.

 _Mass effect technology sees applications in many different fields, from dental hygiene to the Faster Than Light travel that makes interstellar exploration possible and even the Mass Relays themselves._

 _Mass effect technology utilises a super heavy element known as Element Zero that is formed in dying stars and ejected into the universe by nova and supernova explosions._

 _Materials with concentrations of Element Zero or Eezo high enough to refine for use are rare and very valuable, however practically everything in the universe contains trace amounts of Eezo, maybe one atom in every million._

 _Purified Element Zero has the unique property of being able to generate an energy field composed of what is known as 'dark energy' that can raise or lower the mass of an object and alter gravity and inertia within this 'mass effect' field when an electric current is applied, a positive charge creates more mass, gravity and inertia and a negative charge creates less mass, gravity and inertia._

 _This can even be used to generate kinetic force as in kinetic barriers, electric toothbrushes and antigravity drives._

 _See also: Biotics._

Frowning for a moment Carrie finally gave into her curiosity and selected the entry in question;

 _Formerly known as telekinesis-the modern term biotic comes from biologically generated kinetic field._

 _Biotics is the ability of certain gifted individuals to generate and control mass effect fields allowing them to move objects by force of will._

 _Biotics usually result from in utero exposure to high concentrations of Element Zero in dust form, in many cases this results in fatal cancers however in about ten percent of cases this Element Zero will form nodes in the developing nervous system of the foetus._

 _These nodes function like additional muscles that a biotic can 'flex' in order to move objects with their mind, generate biotic barriers, raise or lower their own mass or even tear an object apart at the molecular level._

Carrie was deep in thought for a moment at this information.

Concentrating for a moment Carrie reached out with her own-biotic?-abilities.

FLEX.

The computer floated into the air, hovering for a moment before Carrie lowered it back down again.

 _That's exactly what it feel like when I use my powers, a muscle flexing inside my head. Guess they are biotics-so then Momma was somehow exposed to Eezo when she was pregnant with me?_

Carrie could see that she was only halfway through the document so she continued reading.

 _Biotics whose abilities result from in utero exposure to Eezo typically require surgically installed biotic amplifiers in order to raise their level of biotic ability to a sufficient level for practical use-these implants usually include an 'amp jack' that is accessible externally at the base of the skull allowing an additional 'biotic amp' to be plugged in further enhancing a biotic's abilities._

 _However natural biotics have no need of such aids-though they may still choose to have an amp jack installed._

 _The trait of natural biotics in a life form typically evolves on worlds with large amounts of Element Zero present, on those worlds natural biotics provide a considerable advantage for survival as they also stave off the carcinogenic effects of Element Zero in the body-however rare cases of natural biotics have been recorded on other worlds._

 _Natural Biotics possess a genetic trait that apart from giving them full immunity to the harmful effects of Element Zero also causes them to retain the trace amounts of Eezo from the food they eat, the water they drink and even the air they breathe and store it in their central nervous system, resulting in the formation of biotic nodes-and they begin doing this the moment they are conceived inside their mother._

 _Unlike biotics resulting from in utero exposure to Element Zero whose bodies will naturally regard the element Zero as a toxin and gradually leech it away over the course of their lifetime, natural biotics continue to accumulate more of it-as a result they continue to get stronger over the course of their lives._

 _For example all Asari are naturally biotic, the strongest of them being the Asari matriarchs._

 _There have also been occasional natural biotics of various other species-however, the only known human who is on record as naturally biotic is one Carrietta Natalie White._

 **ssssss**

Maria Wills watched intently as Professor Chambers tapped intently at controls on his Omni tool, his eyes glued to the holographic 'screen' displayed above his orange gauntleted forearm.

"Well this is interesting," Chambers noted "I thought it odd that we couldn't find any signs of an autopsy given that I remembered reading that one had identified some unusual structures in Carrie's brain-apparently they did check her vitals and as far as they could tell she was dead. However when they tried to perform the autopsy the conventional way their scalpels couldn't cut her flesh-every time they tried an invisible force repelled them-so they used an alternative method of autopsy involving X-rays, Sonograms and MRI scans. What does that sound like to you?"

"Biotic stasis," Maria noted with a frown "but that usually only lasts a few minutes, although the time varies depending on the strength of the biotic using it."

"There is a theory," Chambers noted thoughtfully "that the closer the subject is to death-the longer biotic stasis can last when used on them. Because a person can still heal in stasis, albeit at a much slower rate the Asari have been researching this as a possible first aid technique to aid in the treatment of otherwise mortal wounds."

"So she comes out of stasis in the coffin," Maria reasoned "panics and tries to get out but can't, explains why she was lying haphazardly and why her eyes were open-also explains the crack in the headstone and the lid of the coffin. But why was she buried in her bathrobe?"

"Probably they couldn't find anything else to dress her in," Chambers remarked thoughtfully "the authorities were in a hurry to get her in the ground because they feared that the townsfolk might desecrate her corpse as some form of revenge-they couldn't be bothered with a headstone though so Sue Snell and Rita Desjarden made the arrangements."

"Are we sure she's really dead?" Maria asked as she gave the Professor a meaningful look "I mean isn't it possible that she might have gone back into stasis?"

"Theoretically," Chambers agreed "it's also possible that a residual stasis field is what preserved her body, I guess we'll find out when we see if our scalpels can cut her-if they can't then our priorities change."

"To bringing her out of stasis and seeing that she gets the trauma counselling she needs," Maria agreed.

"In that case we may need to ask a favour of the Asari."

"If Carrie lived in our time the Alliance would have identified her before Black Prom happened," Maria noted, hoping to lighten the topic of conversation "assuming that she didn't get sent to Jump Zero she might have gotten some actual help _and_ a better life."

"I'd hate to be Vyrnnus Cirix if she _did_ get sent to Jump Zero," Chambers retorted with a smirk "Kaidan Alenko snapped that creep's neck with one kick, imagine if it had been Carrie who had stepped in to defend you when Vyrnnus broke your arm instead. And if it had been Carrie who got beat up to the point of snapping by that son of a bitch."

"They'd probably have been sopping that asshole up with a sponge," Maria snickered "man-I would have paid good money to see that."

Chambers was chortling away as well, he may have only met Commander Vyrnnus once but he hadn't cared for the man one bit.

"Ah-I needed that," Chambers smirked "let's get back to it."

"You gonna finish your coffee?"

"I'll take it with me and decide when we get back to the examination room."

Maria stretched out her right hand and-.

FLEX.

The cup flew right into her hand.

"No fair," Chamber complained.

Maria raised one dainty eyebrow.

"Okay-fine, you can have it," Chambers relented as he headed toward the examination room.

Maria drained the cup in one gulp and set it down on the table of the lunch room before following after the Professor.

"At least I get some compensation for the migraines."

 **ssssss**

Carrie knew she should get out while she could, but she had become so engrossed in the codex that she found herself reading as much as she could.

Then she read the article on Black Prom and found that the final death toll had been as bad as she had feared.

She sat there-forehead pressed into the palm of her hand as she tried to stop crying over the death and destruction she had caused.

 _You don't get to cry Carrie,_ she told herself, her thoughts thick with self loathing _not after what you've done._

 _I'm sorry-I'm so sorry, I didn't feel any remorse at the time but now-._

 _Oh Momma, I'm sorry I killed you-I know you were trying to kill me but still-._

 _I'm a monster, I should just let them cut me open._

She could still smell the stink of burning flesh as Tina Blake burned to death.

And those people she had electrocuted-.

She could see Chris Hargenson's bloodied face jammed through the windshield of Billy Nolan's car as she took her last breath.

And she could see her Momma, borderline crucified on the door of the 'prayer closet' that Carrie had been locked in for hours or even days at a time on numerous occasions over the course of her life.

However-before she could ponder this any further Carrie was snapped out of her remorseful thoughts by voices approaching the room she was in.

"So if Miss White is in fact alive we see about bringing her out of stasis and then get her the help she needs."

The voice was female and young sounding, Carrie couldn't detect any hint of malice in her tone, instead-could she actually be concerned about Carrie's well being?

 _It's a trick, it has to be a trick,_ surely nobody could care about her-especially not after-.

But Miss Desjarden had, and Sue had tried to help her and Tommy-.

 _I'm so sorry Tommy, you got hurt because Chris wanted to hurt me._

"Development of the new biotic implants will have to take a back seat in that case, Carrie's life is more important assuming she still has it."

This other voice was male, and also seemed to be concerned for her.

 _Could they actually care about me? I want to believe that they do._

 _But what if I hurt them?_

Carrie knew she couldn't let that happen, so as they walked into the room she hid.

 **sssss**

As Chambers walked back into the examination room he immediately knew that things were not as expected.

Firstly his computer was on and he distinctly remembered turning it off.

Secondly-there was no corpse lying on the autopsy table.

"I guess she is alive," Maria observed from beside him "and it looks like she came out of stasis on her own."

"Yes," Chambers agreed as the two approached the autopsy table "but where is she now?"

A noise from the door way, the rustle of clothes caught Maria's attention, she turned in time to see Carrie standing by the doorway, clearly having frozen in the act of leaving, dressed in some surgical scrubs and a lab coat but still barefoot.

"Miss White," Maria called to her, drawing the Professor's attention in the process "you _are_ alive-let us help you."

"You-no, you're trying to trick me," Carrie denied "nobody wants to help me."

"I'm not, I swear," Maria insisted, as she stretched out with her own biotics and levitated the autopsy table a foot off the ground "I'm like you-see? I'm a biotic too, and the Professor here is a good man who helped me when I needed it-let both of us help you."

"But I'm a murderer," Carrie protested with a shake of her head "I could hurt you-I don't want to hurt you."

Then Carrie turned and ran.

 **ssssss**

As Carrie fled through the hallways of this strange place she heard the voice of that man from before giving instructions over hidden speakers.

" _Security-full lock down but do not use force-although tranquilizers are allowed,"_ the voice announced _"as you all know Carrie White's body was exhumed for study-as unbelievable as it is she is alive-I am sending proof of this to your omni tools in the form of surveillance footage. She is somewhere in this institute, frightened and confused and needs to be recaptured for her own safety-she is seventeen years old, petite, with strawberry blonde hair."_

 _Don't you get it?_ Carrie thought to herself _for YOUR safety I need to leave._

" _I don't believe that she intends to hurt anybody,"_ the man's voice continued _"but be careful, it would probably be a good idea not to scare her in any way."_

Carrie knew she needed to leave, as well meaning as these people seemed to be they still intended holding her here against her will.

And Carrie knew that such a thing could only end badly.

As she ran Carrie stumbled slightly, yelping in pain as her calf wound twinged, sending agony lancing through her leg, forcing herself to her feet she continued limping forward, just making it through the next doorway before armoured doors began slamming into place in doorways all around her.

Looking around in desperation Carrie caught sight of a ventilation grate.

Here was her escape for the moment.

It was solid and obviously designed to resist any attempt to pry it off the wall.

 _But I'm a biotic,_ Carrie thought smugly.

FLEX

The grate bent outward slightly but gave no sign of movement other than that.

 _Designed to resist biotics?_

Apparently so.

A shimmer in the air surrounding the grate caught her eye.

 _That section of the codex about mass effect technology mentioned kinetic barriers-is that a kinetic barrier? Was this place built for the study of biotics then?_

The obvious answer was yes.

Carrie was far above average as biotics went however-and her panicked state of mind made her abilities stronger still.

FLEX

One corner of the grate ripped free from the wall.

Carrie could hear running feet outside the blast door behind her.

"Have you got those tranqs ready?" somebody asked on the other side of the door.

 **FLEX**

The grate ripped free, embedding itself in the opposite wall of the hallway.

The security door behind Carrie began to open with a hiss of hydraulics.

Carrie scrambled into the ventilation shaft in a mad dash, making a deafening racket as she crawled along it as fast as she could.

"She's in the ventilation ducts," somebody called from outside "I repeat-she's in the ventilation ducts."

A security guard crawled into the duct after Carrie, aiming a gun of some sort at her.

Tranquilizer gun?

Didn't matter.

FLEX

He was propelled back out, landing hard on his rear.

Carrie scrambled madly through the ducts, she had no real plan in mind and was just making it up as she went, her only real goal was to avoid capture without hurting anybody.

That lead weight in her gut was a constant reminder that she had too much blood on her hands already.

After a time she came to what looked like a way out.

Was that the metal vent capping on the roof of the building?

FLEX

Well it _was._

Now it was her exit.

Clambering out in her now soiled scrubs and lab coat Carrie took a look around and quickly realised that she was nowhere near Chamberlain.

It was difficult to tell with all of the high technology surrounding her, most of which was completely unfamiliar to the terrified young girl, but it looked sort of like pictures she had seen of New York city.

 _I guess it really has been a century and a half since my time,_ Carrie realised as it finally sank in.

The population of New York was also different to what she was familiar with, it was still mostly human though.

Mostly.

There were occasional-other kinds of people, some of which she recognised from the anatomy charts in the autopsy room, turian here, hanar there, asari over there.

Carrie stood spellbound by this for a long moment.

Actual aliens.

 _The world HAS changed-or should that be galaxy now?_

The thumping of booted feet snapped Carrie out of her musings as she turned and caught sight of half a dozen security guards approaching from a nearby access door and surrounding her in front with only the edge of the roof behind.

"Okay Miss White," the head of the security men spoke in a calm voice, clearly meant to reassure "Just come along quietly, I promise that nobody is going to hurt you-we only want to help you."

"It's not me I'm worried about," Carrie replied quietly as she glanced down over the edge.

The pavement was ten floors down.

The head of the security squad noticed this.

"Hey don't Carrie-please," he implored her "It's not worth it-surely you still have something to live for."

"What could I possibly have to live for?" Carrie asked simply "After what I've done?"

And then she jumped off.

 **ssssss**

"NO," Security Chied Dexter Danvers called out in alarm as he saw Carrie jump over the edge of the roof.

 _Dammit NO,_ he protested silently as he dashed toward the edge, looking over in alarm.

This quickly turned to relief and more than a little anger at the young girl for scaring him like that when he saw her crouching completely unharmed on the pavement ten floors below.

 _She must have used her biotics to slow her fall,_ Danvers realised.

"Danvers to all security units," he spoke into his headset implant "Carrie White is now outside the building, she is so far unharmed but doesn't seem to want to stay here, we're all unharmed as well unless you count my near heart attack-Damn she's a reckless bitch."

 **ssssss**

As soon as Carrie regained her bearings after landing she immediately began putting as much distance between herself and the research institute as she could.

It helped that she didn't have to avoid getting hit by cars in this 22nd century New York-all of the cars were flying through the air above her.

Navigating the crowd was a challenge however-but years of being the target of practically every bully at Ewen High had taught Carrie how to pass by unnoticed, and she instinctively used this to weave nimbly through the crowd while the security guards from the institute were trying to push through.

As she passed through an empty spot in the middle of the crowd Carrie's eyes caught sight of a manhole leading to the New York sewers.

FLEX

The manhole cover was pulled out of the manhole and moved to one side and Carrie dropped quickly down into the tunnels.

A second application of biotics shifted the manhole cover back into place above her.

 **ssssss**

If asked later Carrie would have been unable to determine how long she spent below New York's streets-all she knew was that when she emerged she was in what was obviously a slum neighbourhood.

For now Carrie was away from where she might hurt anybody, but she was cold, hungry and thirsty and as far from anything familiar as she could possibly get.

The wound to her back still throbbed as well, her other wounds also hurt and her hunger had become painful.

Carrie had been running on adrenaline up to this point, but as that faded she began to feel weak and dizzy as she began to sway on her feet, unable to keep her balance.

Finally her legs gave way under her as Carrie sank into darkness.

 **sssssss**

For a long time Carrie was drifting in and out of consciousness, at one time when she was briefly aware she could feel that she was lying face down on something soft, and she was naked from the waist up as gentle hands worked carefully to clean the knife wound in her back.

Carrie knew she should get up and leave-she was putting these people in danger just being here.

But she felt too weak to move.

"Pass me that tube of medi gel please," a young sounding female voice said as the gentle hands finished up cleaning her wound.

"Here ya go," said a male voice.

"Thanks Dex."

The gentle hands were touching Carrie's bare back again a moment later, this time applying some kind of cold gel like substance to her knife wound-after a moment it began to produce a burning sensation.

Carrie stiffened in pain as much as her weakened state would allow, which was really just clenching of her fingers.

"Easy Miss, it's okay," the female voice from before told her soothingly "I know this stuff burns but I promise it'll help."

True to this girl's word the burning sensation began to fade after a moment and Carrie's back felt the best it had since before she got stabbed.

"There, that takes care of the life threatening wound," the girl noted "now for the merely crippling ones."

Carrie knew she shouldn't let herself drift off again, but she was so very tired-and these people didn't seem to mean her any harm for now at least.

 **ssssss**

When Carrie next woke she was lying on her back on a makeshift cot with a blanket covering her and soft white bandages were wrapped around her chest, her right calf and her right forearm.

And she was dressed in clean, soft, loose fitting clothes.

She was awoken by someone gently shaking her shoulder.

"Miss-wake up," said the female voice from before "you need to try and eat something."

Finally Carrie managed to force her eyes open, catching sight of a petite Asian girl about two years younger than her as she did.

On the linoleum floor beside the girl was a steaming bowl of soup and a spoon

"Can you sit up?"

"I'll-try," Carrie replied weakly as she endeavoured to do so.

"Here-let me help," the girl offered.

Carrie half suspected a trick-but that was just a conditioned reflex, so far this girl and her companion from before had given no sign of trickery.

And in any case she _did_ need the help right now Carrie realised as she nodded her acceptance.

Carefully placing the bowl of soup on Carrie's lap, the girl offered her the spoon.

"Are you okay to do this?" the girl asked "I can spoon feed you if you're not strong enough yet."

"No-I got it," Carrie replied weakly as she took the spoon and began to slowly eat.

"I'm Emily Wong by the way," the girl introduced herself "and you are-?"

"Carrie-my name's Carrie."

 **ssssss**

 **Episode Closing theme 'Nuclear' by Ryan Adams.**


	3. Episode 3: The Tenth Street Reds

**The Good Shepherd**

Mass Effect is owned by Bioware.

Carrie is owned by Stephen King.

The 2013 version of Carrie is owned by Metro Goldwyn Mayer productions and director Kimberly Pierce.

The only things I own are this crossover of the two and any original characters that may be featured.

 **ssssss**

 **Episode 3: The Tenth Street Reds**

 _Many people have asked-what is the difference between a natural biotic and a biotic whose abilities result from in utero exposure to Element Zero-they both have high levels of Eezo in their bodies don't they?_

 _The difference is that an in utero exposure biotic has high levels of element zero in their body as the result of an accident and they are dependent upon a biotic implant to summon a sufficient level of biotic power for practical use._

 _A natural biotic has high levels of element zero in their body as a result of their genetics and doesn't need an implant._

 _There are other differences as well-for example any biotic can summon and control mass effect fields but only a natural biotic can sense mass effect fields, and it takes a great deal of training for even a natural biotic to have full use of this ability._

Excerpt from the notes of Professor David Chambers _._

 **ssssss**

November 25th 2169, New York.

Professor Chambers sighed in frustration as he heard the response of the man running the hot dog stand when he showed him the picture of Carrie White he had.

"No-sorry, ain't seen her."

"Nearly three months and we still haven't found her," Maria noted soberly.

"At least we know that she probably is still alive," Chambers remarked as he turned off his omni tool, causing the picture it had displayed to disappear "we get an occasional lead but by the time we arrive she's already moved on."

Ever since Carrie's escape from the institute the two had been searching for the biotic teen in between trying to find an alternative option for developing safer implants for human biotics.

So far both searches had failed to yield the desired result.

"I hope she's okay."

"We've seen for ourselves that Carrie's a survivor," Maria pointed out "she's okay."

"Our first priority when we find her is to help her-I don't care what that idiot Burns says," Chambers noted " _then_ we see about convincing her to agree to the medical scans we need."

"Well, let's try one more before we break for the day," Maria suggested as they walked up to a waitress tending some tables out the front of a cafe.

As they showed the young woman the picture her eyes lit up in recognition.

"Yeah-yeah I seen her, she eats breakfast here every morning," the woman told them "yesterday she was with Sally Nellis and Dexter Finch-and her name's Carrie right?"

"Yeah-that's right."

"That's her then-that's your girl, not sure where she gets her money but she's always good for it."

"I haven't heard of this Nellis girl," Maria whispered to Chambers "but word on the street is that Finch is one of the Reds."

"Good chance that the Nellis girl is in the Reds too," Chambers whispered back "and Carrie is probably in the gang now as well-we have to find her before it's too late."

 **ssssss**

Professor Chambers sighed tiredly as he sat in the back seat of the cab, Maria beside him on their trip back to the institute to close up for the day.

"Well," Maria finally ventured after a long silence "at least we know she's alive."

"Yes but-running with the Reds," Chambers shook his head in frustration "what is that girl thinking?"

"I doubt there was much thought involved," Maria suggested "just desperation."

"Desperation can cause people to snap," Chambers reminded Maria "nobody wants to see Carrie snap-not a second time."

"This time she'd probably go suicidal," Maria pointed out "you saw how desperate she was to avoid possibly hurting us."

"She should have stayed at the institute," Chambers told Maria quietly "we could have helped her-we still might be able to help her if we can find her."

"Well," Maria remarked "if she's running with a street gang she could have chosen a worse one than the Reds."

"Yeah, I know," Chambers agreed "they're all about looking out for humans who are being picked on by those aliens who think they're better than us and as the Reds would put it 'want to tell us what to do' but still-they engage in acts of petty theft, extortion and vandalism. They also have committed acts of violence even if most of that violence _was_ in defence of a fellow human and half of them are out and out xenophobes."

"That Dexter Finch is the worst one of the lot from what my friends tell me," Maria added "why would she hang around with a guy like that?"

"Maybe it was just that one time."

 **ssssss**

As Chambers got back to his office at the institute he realised that someone was there waiting for him.

"Major Hackett-come to check on the situation?"

"I heard you might have a lead on the White girl Professor," Hackett noted.

"You were monitoring my communications weren't you Major?" Chambers' response was clearly not a question "it's true-turns out she's running with the Reds."

"I say we tranq her, drag her in here and get what we need by any means necessary," another voice suggested as the newcomer revealed himself.

"Burns," Chambers acknowledged the newcomer before turning back toward Hackett "we can get what we need without having to victimise that girl-all we need is a DNA sample and some detailed medical scans of her brain, those can be done without causing her any harm."

"She murdered her classmates in a fit of rage," Burns countered "she should be locked up and sedated for the rest of her life."

"Oh sure-and then we're the bad guys," Chambers shot back "in case you've forgotten she was driven to that by the inhuman way she was treated her whole life."

"And if somebody did to me what was done to her I'd probably want them dead too-not to mention those sickos who thought it was funny," Hackett added "didn't that disaster at BAAT teach you anything Burns? How much trouble is Conatix in because of that?"

"Fine-just find her," Burns relented as he stalked off in a defeated huff.

Chambers couldn't help but smile as he watched the man go.

"Don't let the door hit you in the ass Burns."

"He's an ass," Hackett agreed "but he's a useful ass."

"Thanks for backing me up there Hackett," Chambers nodded gratefully in the Alliance Officer's direction "Carrie is somebody we should be helping."

"More than that," Hackett told the Professor "she's a potentially valuable ally."

"Are you saying that we should suggest the idea of enlisting to her?" Chambers asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Once we're sure of her mental stability-absolutely," Hackett confirmed.

"The name 'Carrietta White' on her enlistment form might turn a few too many heads," Chambers pointed out.

"So we suggest the idea of adopting a new identity to her as well," Hackett elaborated.

"But what name should she use? It's her decision of course but I hope she keeps her first name-I think Carrietta is a pretty name."

"I suppose we'll have to think of something," Hackett shrugged.

 **ssssss**

Later that night in a nearby part of New York

"I cannot believe you made me do that Emily," Carrie complained as she followed her friend out of the night club "didn't the story about how I fell on my face and chipped a tooth in my first elementary school dance class tell you anything?"

"Aw c'mon Care Bear, your dancing isn't that bad," Emily Wong denied with a wave of her hand.

"You're just being tactful aren't you?" Carrie asked with a raised brow as she tried to stop panicking over what a complete ass she had made of herself in there "seriously Emily-I looked like a chicken on drugs."

"Okay-yes, you're bad at dancing," Emily admitted "but at least you've finally come out of your shell."

"Well-yeah, I have you guys to thank for that-except for Finch that is, that dick made it harder to gain some confidence," Carrie sighed as she folded her arms across her chest-her self esteem was better than it had been but it still wasn't the best "I still can't forgive myself for what I did."

While speaking with Emily one time Carrie had confided in her about her bullying classmates and abusive mother and how she had snapped at her prom after Chris had dumped pigs blood over her and unintentionally killed her date when the bucket that held the blood had hit him on the head.

She'd left out certain details of course, like names and the century and a half she had spent in biotic stasis afterward-she also hadn't told any of the Reds her surname.

This was partly because she didn't think she deserved to go by that surname after she had tainted it through the crimes she had committed and partly to avoid awkward questions.

After all-her first name combined with the fact that Carrie was a biotic already garnered enough curious looks.

"What happened wasn't your fault Care," Emily assured the strawberry blonde biotic "those ignorant jackasses drove you to that, your mind was broken at the time and you didn't realise the moral implications of what you were doing until it was over and you'd had time to calm down. As for your mother-that was self defence, I saw the wounds she gave you."

"Doesn't make me feel any better about it," Carrie replied quietly as the two girls walked toward their transportation-a clapped out old skycar that Emily had-um, 'borrowed' from Finch for the night.

"I know," Emily smiled sympathetically at her "but you're not a monster Carrie."

"Tell it to the people I killed," Carrie countered quietly.

"You're never gonna let that go are you?" Emily asked gently as she thought for a moment about how to cheer her friend up.

It occurred to Emily that the car they had driven here in belonged to Finch, someone that Emily had a strong dislike for.

"Hey Care-feel like a driving lesson?"

 **ssssss**

As Emily and Carrie touched down back at the gang hideout after a rather-interesting drive Emily needed a minute or two to regain her balance after she stepped out of the skycar.

"Advice to improve your driving," Emily noted "ease back on the throttle and don't swerve so much."

"My driving isn't that bad is it?" Carrie asked in concern "I mean, I didn't hit anybody."

"You nearly flipped us three times-in a _skycar_ ," Emily shot back "and let's not forget that truck you barely dodged."

"But I feel so alive when I'm driving" Carrie protested "I can't help cutting loose a little."

 _Good to see her gaining some confidence,_ Emily noted _the old Carrie would have retreated into her shell at that criticism of her driving._

"A little more care would be a good thing or we might both be feeling dead," Emily suggested.

"Use somebody else's car next time," another voice instructed.

"Oh-hi Dex," Emily replied nonchalantly.

Dexter Finch looked less than pleased with the fact that Emily had 'borrowed' his car, and worse let Carrie drive it-not that Emily was scared of that blow hard.

Carrie still cringed a little around him though-as soon as he announced himself her nervousness had been plain to see.

"And look who else is here," Finch remarked "God's little errant angel."

"Lay off Finch," Emily told the idiot flatly "Carrie's entitled to believe in God and Jesus if she wants to-does she get on _your_ case for being an atheist?"

"But does she have to be such a goody two shoes about it?" Finch demanded "Always chasing after the lost sheep."

"I've-I've stolen for this gang Finch-you know I have," Carrie replied quietly.

 _I wish he'd stop this crap,_ Carrie thought to herself _his attitude is an unwanted reminder of home._

"And you give half of what you swipe to the homeless."

"Somebody has to-now back off," Carrie snapped in irritation as the inner core of strength hidden beneath her meek exterior decided to put in an appearance.

For a moment the two stared one another down-but Carrie was tired of being pushed around and she'd been putting up with this jerk's attitude for three months now so she refused to back down this time.

And despite how thick headed Finch was he knew better than to piss off a biotic.

"Fine," Finch relented after a moment "but you could at least stop dressing like you're about to enter a convent."

Despite how harsh Finch's remark was he had a point, Carrie's usual attire was still very modest-consisting these days of loose fitting blue jeans, a pair of sand shoes and a long sleeved white hooded top, the hood of which was usually up.

The only skin left exposed by this outfit was Carrie face and her hands.

"Ass," Emily muttered as she watched Finch go, smiling in Carrie's direction a moment later "You finally stood up to him Care Bear-good job."

"I-I can't believe that actually worked," Carrie exclaimed as she finally regained her composure "I could've done that with Chris and saved myself a lot of pain."

"I take it Chris was one of the kids who made your life hell," Emily deduced easily.

"The ringleader actually," Carrie recalled "And the one behind the pig's blood at prom-also liked to throw tampons at scared girls who are having their first period and don't know what it is."

"In other words a Bitch with a capital B," Emily nodded "One good gut punch would have stopped her rant-but then you'd have the rest of her little posse to worry about."

"Worth it," Carrie smirked "Oh and-thanks for the driving lesson Emily."

 **ssssss**

"So-I've been meaning to ask Emily," Carrie asked her best friend as they walked back to their makeshift beds "How did a girl like you end up with the Reds?"

"It isn't a happy tale, that's for sure," Emily recalled "My father was in the Alliance Navy during the First Contact war-he was stationed on Shanxi when the Turian Hierachy invaded."

"He was killed?" Carrie guessed.

Emily nodded.

"My father was defending a civilian settlement when a turian platoon managed to cut him off from the rest of his squad-by the time his squadmates were able to get to him he'd taken a sniper round to the head."

"And you want to make the turians pay," Carrie deduced "But how does joining the Reds help with that?"

"Not all turians," Emily corrected "Just the bastard who was leading that platoon-I ran away from home in order to accomplish this-as to how joining the Reds helps, it's a source of intel to track that turian down."

"And do you think that killing him will take your pain away?" Carrie asked gently "I know that killing my tormentors didn't take my pain away."

"My father deserves to be avenged," Carrie flinched at Emily's harsh tone-and the younger girl's expression quickly became apologetic "I'm-I'm sorry Care Bear, I didn't mean to snap at you."

"It's okay," Carrie told Emily quietly "just-please think about what I just said."

 **ssssss**

As she watched Carrie lie down and drift off to sleep for the night Emily was getting ready for bed herself.

She was interrupted by the arrival of Sally Nellis.

"So how's Carrie doing?" Sally asked.

"Much better in recent weeks," Emily reported "she's made great strides in spite of Finch's best efforts."

"Good," Sally nodded in satisfaction "Em-I heard something earlier today that might interest you."

"What did you hear?"

"Oraka's in town."

 **ssssss**

November 26th 2169 6:30 AM

Carrie yawned slightly as she entered the cafe that she had become a regular at over the last three months, she was greeted by the head waitress.

"Carrietta-good to see you, your usual?"

"Yes-thank you Lisa," Carrie smiled.

Carrie had of course swiped somebody's credit chit to get her breakfast money-but that was a necessity for survival for her now.

As Lisa brought Carrie her breakfast and her coffee Carrie asked the question that she had been meaning to ask.

"Did Emily come here at all this morning? She wasn't at the house when I woke up."

"I haven't seen her," Lisa told Carrie

 _That's troubling,_ Carrie thought to herself.

 **ssssss**

 _Oraka,_ Emily thought hatefully as she walked away from the arms dealer with the two pistols and the two ammo mods she had stolen C _ommander Septimus Oraka, he was leading the twelfth platoon when they pinned my father down and shot him._

At last vengeance was in her grasp.

A Turian ambassador by the name of Sorrus Tiberran was stopping over in New York briefly before being flown to a diplomatic summit in Vancouver and Oraka had been assigned to command his security detail.

The Turians would be expecting the possibility of some group like the Reds targeting the ambassador himself-what they wouldn't expect was for one of his bodyguards to be the real target.

Each of the two pistols she was carrying was loaded with a different kind of ammunition, the Carnifex was loaded with shredder rounds so that one shot would kill that Turian bastard.

The other pistol, a Suppressor model-was a contingency plan.

Both were well concealed.

 **ssssss**

As Maria Wills approached the Cafe that they had learned Carrie was frequenting she could see that their information had been correct-but Carrie was already leaving.

She seemed to be in a hurry for some reason but she hadn't noticed Maria.

"Professor," Maria spoke to Professor Chambers via her omni tool "I see Carrie already leaving the Cafe for some reason-she seems to be in a hurry."

"Follow her but keep out of sight," Chambers instructed "we need to learn more about her situation-I'll track your omni tool in case you get into trouble."

"I can try to snag her with my biotics if you want," Maria suggested.

"No-bad idea," Chambers shot that plan down straight away "we need her trust-and if that's going to happen we have to convince her to return to the institute willingly."

"Okay Professor-I'll follow her."

As Maria followed Carrie she eventually came to a slum neighbourhood, the cute strawberry blonde Maria had been following met up with a few other people, some her age-some older and some younger but the run down building that Carrie had gone to screamed 'gang hideout'.

After a time Carrie walked inside and Maria radioed Chambers and quietly informed him of the situation before settling in to wait.

 **ssssss**

As Carrie approached the Reds' hideout she saw a few of the other members of the gang, some she had gotten to know over the last three months and some were still unfamiliar to her.

The girl she caught sight of, a tall slim brunette-was somebody she knew.

"Sally-good to see you."

"You too Carrie-nice to see you're more confident these days."

Sally was another person that Carrie had managed to make friends with among the Reds-about three years older than Carrie and she fussed over the younger girl as if Carrie was her kid sister.

Their were a few others Carrie had made friends with as well-Dexter Finch's older brother Damien was all right-hell of a lot nicer than the younger Finch and Andrew Greiz was nice too-even if he did tend to fawn over Carrie and fumble his lines in her presence.

Speaking of Andrew-there he was now.

"Hi Andy," Carrie called with a confidence that was refreshingly new for her.

"Oh-um-uh hi C-Carrie," Andrew called back as he blushed profusely upon catching sight of her.

Sally smiled and shook her head as she rested her right hand against her face in amused annoyance.

"He's hopeless," Sally complained half heartedly "why doesn't he just ask you out already?"

"You-think he likes me?" Carrie asked tentatively.

"I _know_ he likes you," Sally corrected.

"B-but why would he like me?" Carrie asked confused-surely nobody could find her attractive could they?

"Why wouldn't he?" Sally countered with a raised eyebrow.

"Why wouldn't he?"Carrie echoed as she felt her eyes tear up "because I'm ugly, and stupid and pathetic and weak."

"Stop putting yourself down Carrie," Sally told the young biotic "I don't know who said you were those things but I feel like breaking their legs with a crowbar. You're not ugly-you're beautiful, you're not stupid-you're incredibly smart and you're not weak or pathetic-you're one of the strongest people I know, probably _the_ strongest."

"Thanks for saying that Sally," Carrie told the other girl "I'm not sure I believe it but-."

"You _are_ pretty and strong and smart," Sally assured her "I see how smart you are every day-the things we taught you since you joined, you've learned them in a fraction of the time it would have taken anybody else-even if dancing and driving seem to be beyond your capabilities."

"Thanks-except for that last part," Carrie nodded to Sally as she spoke, her expression brightening slightly "Um-have you seen Emily today?"

"Haven't seen her," Sally replied "it's weird too, last night I told her Oraka was in town and she seemed to really obsess over it-pressed me for every detail."

"Oraka?" Carrie asked-her brow furrowing in thought "is this Oraka guy Turian by any chance?"

"Yeah," Sally confirmed "Emily asked me to tell her if I heard anything about a Turian named Septimus Oraka-never said why. Anyhow-the guy is in town, he's commanding the security detail for some Turian ambassador-Tiberran I think his name was."

"Last night she told me that she joined the Reds to get intel on the Turian who led the platoon that killed her father at Shanxi," Carrie recalled "You don't think that it was-?"

"Oraka?" Sally finished "seems likely."

"Sally," Carrie requested seriously "I need to know where this ambassador is staying."

 **ssssss**

After getting the location of the hotel that Ambassador Tiberran was staying at Carrie hurried out as fast as she could, trying to figure out how she should get money for a cab fare.

Did she have time to hack someone's account from a public extranet terminal?

 _Screw it, I'll just steal Finch's car,_ she decided _and if the ass doesn't like it I'll practise my biotic throw on him._

Speaking of Dexter Finch-he was standing right beside said car.

 _Of course,_ Carrie thought to herself _Just my luck-on the plus side I probably get to kick his ass._

"You're not driving my car blondie," Finch told her flatly.

"Sorry Finch but I am," Carrie corrected him "Emily's about to do something stupid and I need your car to get there in time to talk her out of it."

"Not my problem," Finch replied callously "Now get lost."

"I thought you knew not to piss off biotics Finch," Carrie remarked in a deceptively soft voice "You think I wont kick your ass? If I don't get to Emily soon a Turian military officer will die by her hand."

"One less alien?" Finch noted "That can only be a good thing."

"Fuck you Finch," Carrie had had enough.

Acting quickly she sent Finch flipping right over his car with a flick of her wrist-her biotics dropping him hard onto the pavement on the other side in a dazed heap.

Before he had time to recover Carrie had relieved him of his keyfob and was in the drivers seat, tearing off into the sky at breakneck speeds.

 _For once my lead foot will come in handy,_ Carrie thought as she wove through the traffic in the skies.

 **sssssss**

As Carrie landed near the location that Sally had given her night was starting to fall, she hoped that she wasn't too late as she began looking around frantically for Emily.

 _Come on Em-where are you?_ Carrie demanded silently-her mind frantic with worry that Emily might end up having to live with the same guilt that Carrie herself had to live with.

Finally she caught sight of her friend's face among the crowd, following her until she could confront her somewhere nobody else would see.

Emily seemed to oblige her in this as she walked into a public restroom-Carrie was wary that this might be some trap to prevent her from interfering with what Emily had planned, but she had to take the chance.

She probably wouldn't get another.

As she walked in Carrie heard a pistol firing and felt something strike her hard in the chest, looking up in shock as she fell on her back at Emily holding the gun that had fired the shot.

A Suppressor model from what she had been able to learn from the other Reds.

"Don't worry," Emily told Carrie as she slipped the gun back into her coat "you're not going to die, that pistol is loaded with concussive rounds-non lethal. I knew you might try to stop me so I had that pistol as a contingency, my other gun is the one that'll blow Oraka's head clean off."

"Em-Don't-," Carrie wheezed as she struggled to get her breath back "don't do this-you'll-regret it-rest of-your life."

"Sorry Care, but I have to," Emily told Carrie as her eyes became watery with unshed tears "my daddy can't rest in peace until that bastard is dead."

Then Emily left.

 **ssssss**

Commander Septimus Oraka of the Turian Military took a deep breath of this alien world's air, catching a short break while he could.

He was a war weary Turian officer who had seen a lot of horrible things in his time-the worst of them had been at Shanxi, perpetrated by his fellow Turians.

 _We shouldn't have been there,_ he thought _we shouldn't have attacked the humans over something as petty as opening a mass relay._

How many orphans had he and his men made that day?

Every time Oraka thought about it he immediately realised that he was probably better off not knowing.

But he had no time to ponder this further as a hard blow to the back of the head rendered him unconscious.

 **ssssss**

As Carrie struggled to get up she could feel her stomach heaving from the effects of the stun round that had been used on her.

 _Gonna-throw-up,_ Carrie thought desperately as she lurched into a nearby toilet cubicle and hunched over the toilet-her stomach violently emptying itself moments later.

 _Oooh-I feel terrible,_ Carrie thought as her stomach finally stopped feeling quite so queasy _Emily-what are you doing you idiot?_

Quickly rinsing her mouth out from the sink Carrie began racking her brain for a way to locate Emily again but she was at a dead loss-finding her friend the first time had been a stroke of luck.

 _I could really use a miracle right now,_ Carrie thought to herself _oh heavenly father, please hear my prayer. I know you're probably not too happy with me after what I did but this isn't for me-it's for Emily._

Carrie didn't know if it was her prayers being answered or if it was just that strong emotion was what awakened her abilities, but she felt a strange but oddly familiar feeling fill her mind-she had felt this feeling only once before.

It was how she had known that Sue Snell was pregnant.

 _I know where Emily is,_ Carrie realised in surprise _I can sense her emotions-so much rage and pain, I have to help her._

 _If I follow that feeling it should lead me straight to her._

 **ssssss**

When Commander Oraka regained consciousness the first thing he noticed was that he was restrained with thick ropes in what looked like an abandoned warehouse.

As he looked up he could just make out a figure standing over him, no facial features were discernible in the poor light but this individual appeared to be a human female-holding a heavy pistol.

"I could have blown your head off with this quick and easy," the woman? Girl? Her voice was young sounding-told him "but I wanted you to know why this was happening to you-remember Shanxi?"

"I try not to,"Oraka replied quietly "the relay 314 incident was a mistake that cost countless lives on both sides."

Oraka's face suddenly stung in spite of the protective bony plates covering it and his left mandible felt numb as the girl pistol whipped him hard.

"That's what really pisses me off about you lot," the girl told him "you dismiss what happened as a mere 'incident' when you tried to wipe us all out for opening a fucking mass relay."

"High Command was afraid that we were dealing with another threat like the Rachni, we-."

"Shut up," the girl ordered him in what was half a snarl and half a sob "my father was on Shanxi you bastard-your men cut him off from his squad and gunned him down."

"He was following orders Emily," a soft voice with an undercurrent of inner strength told the girl from the entrance to the room of the warehouse they were in "He's not some monster-he's just a soldier, like your father was."

"My-my father is dead because of him Carrie," the girl-Emily-sobbed "Why should he get to keep living?"

"I thought something like that about my classmates on the night of my prom," the other girl-Carrie-told her distraught friend "we know where that led-do you know what I learned from that?"

Emily shook her head.

"I learned that revenge only leads to more pain," Carrie told Emily as she struggled to keep from sobbing herself "Is that what you want Emily?"

"I-no-I don't know," Emily admitted, her breath shaky from the stress of the situation "I just-I-."

"Give me the pistols," Carrie instructed her friend gently.

"Here-take them," Emily relented as she handed them over "I-I'm so fucked up."

"Not as fucked up as me," Carrie countered "we should leave before the authorities arrive-I'll return the pistols to the gun shop for you."

"Thanks."

As the two walked away the one named Carrie looked back briefly and waved a hand-as she did Oraka felt all of the ropes holding him restrained snap, releasing him from his confinement.

 _She's a biotic,_ Oraka realised.  
Most Turians were wary and suspicious of biotics, but crap like that was not important to Oraka right now.

What was was that he owed that girl his life.

 **sssssss**

As Carrie drove Finch's car back to the hideout Emily didn't even bother to complain about her driving which seriously did fit the description of 'Evil Kneivel with breasts'.

Emily had other things on her mind.

"I wanted to kill him for so long," Emily confided quietly "but what good would that have done?"

"The important thing is that you didn't kill him Emily," Carrie assured her friend "I wish somebody would have talked me out of-."

"That wasn't your fault Carrie."

"Maybe-maybe not," Carrie sighed tiredly as she brought the skycar in to land "Point is I've got blood on my hands and I have to live with that-I didn't want you to have to carry that burden."

"Thanks for having my back Care," Emily smiled gently as the two got out of the skycar.

"Thanks for putting my back _out_ bitch," Finch snapped as he came out to 'greet' them.

"Don't start with me Finch-I've had a long day," Carrie warned him.

"Yeah-chasing after the lost sheep and defending the damn aliens," Finch countered.

"They're worth saving too Finch," Carrie insisted, knowing full well that she was right "Besides, I didn't do it for Oraka-I did it for Emily."

"Whatever-as far as I'm concerned you sided with the enemy-turned your back on your fellow Reds."

"Well don't worry Finch because I'm done with the Reds," Carrie assured him "I'll be gone from here tomorrow morning."

"And I will too," Emily added "I figure it's time I go home and patch things up with my Mom-you can come too Care, I'm sure she'll welcome you."

"I'll think about it."

"Well then," Finch sneered "Since you seem intent on chasing after the lost sheep all the time I guess I'll see you around- _shepherd._ "

"No Finch, you wont," Carrie assured him "My gang days are over."

 **ssssss**

As Septimus Oraka made his was back to the hotel that the ambassador he was protecting was staying at he was greeted out the front by one of his men-the visor he wore and the blue face paint made his identity obvious.

"Private Vakarian," Oraka noted.

"What happened to you Sir?" Vakarian asked "You look like you went a couple of rounds with a Krogan Battlemaster."

"A couple of muggers jumped me," Oraka told him, not wanting to bring charges against either of those girls "I wasn't paying attention-it's embarrassing."

"Do you want me to notify the authorities Sir?" Vakarian offered.

"Don't bother," Oraka dismissed the request casually "It was dark-I didn't get a good look at them. Let's just have the medic patch me up."

 **ssssss**

The next day.

As Carrie sat eating her breakfast in her favourite cafe, Emily opposite her the two were approached by a certain Turian.

"Greetings," he called to the two of them "I asked around about the names Emily and Carrie, it turned out that an Emily and a Carrietta eat breakfast here every morning."

Emily looked ready to run but Oraka raised a hand in reassurance.

"Don't worry-I didn't tell anyone what really happened last night, I fully understand why you did what you did-in your position I probably would have done the same," Oraka assured Emily before shifting his attention to Carrie "I just wanted to thank you for saving my life. I know you didn't do it for me but-thank you."

"You're welcome," Carrie replied, blushing slightly as she did.

And with that Septimus Oraka left.

"After all you've been through, your heart is still so pure," Emily marvelled "The worst part of it is that from what you told me things would never have gone as far as they did had Chris' rich lawyer daddy not come to her rescue every time she got into trouble for bullying other kids. Someone needs to bring men like him down-the corrupt bastard."

"Her mother was a part of it too don't forget," another voice that was unfamiliar to Emily but familiar to Carrie interjected "as to how you bring men like John Hargenson down you dig out the truth about them and expose it for the galaxy to see."

"John Hargenson," Emily remarked thoughtfully "I've heard that name before."

"You're that woman from the research institute," Carrie noted.

"From the Institute for Transhuman Study," the woman confirmed "my name is Maria Wills."

"What do you want?" Carrie asked simply.

"To help you," Maria replied simply "to help you to understand and master your powers, to help you to heal from the trauma you've suffered, to help you to realise that what happened on Prom Night was not your fault. And in turn you could help us to help a lot of people-many of them your fellow biotics."

"But-after what I did-."

"You can look upon it as a chance to atone if you want," Maria offered "look I know that you're hesitant to trust, after everything you've been through I don't blame you and waking up on an autopsy table in the institute after a century and a half in biotic stasis probably didn't help but we really do want to help you."

"Century and a half," Emily whispered in surprise as everything finally clicked into place "Carrie White?"

"The one and only," Carrie confirmed quietly.

"But-how?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out," Carrie shrugged "So-Maria-how is it I'm able to help you in turn?"

"Your natural biotics are unique among humanity," Maria elaborated "currently human biotics are forced to use the L2 model biotic implants to raise their level of biotic ability to sufficient levels for practical use-but the L2s cause all manner of horrific side effects. I should know, I'm stuck with one of the damn things."

"And-my natural biotics are the key to something better?" Carrie guessed.

"Potentially yes."

"What do you need?" Carrie asked.

"Some detailed medical scans of your brain," Maria told the young girl "quite painless I assure you and a blood sample or two for DNA."

"Okay," Carrie decided as she thought for a moment and then made her decision "I'm in."

 **ssssss**

 **Episode closing theme 'Superheroes' by 'The Script'.**


	4. Episode 4: Colonial Life Part 1

**The Good Shepherd**

 **Episode 4: Colonial Life Part 1**

 **ssssss**

Mass Effect is owned by Bioware.

Carrie is owned by Stephen King.

The 2013 version of Carrie is owned by Metro Goldwyn Mayer productions and director Kimberly Pierce.

The only things I own are this crossover of the two and any original characters that may be featured.

 **ssssss**

 _Carrie White is without a doubt one of the most controversial and misunderstood figures in history._

 _Many people have sought to vilify her, but what they all fail to realise or choose to ignore is that prior to Prom Night she had never hurt anybody in her life, but for some reason was made to feel as though there was something wrong with her._

 _There are just as many who rightly understand her these days-it would seem that hindsight is indeed much clearer than foresight._

 _Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between a villain and a victim and Carrie White is proof of this._

Major Steven Hackett in an address to Alliance High Command November 30th 2169.

 **ssssss**

December 3rd 2169, The institute for Transhuman Study in New York.

Carrie sighed as she lay on the exam table inside a big metal tube dressed only in a surgical gown and a pair of panties as the machine that the tube was a part of scanned her brain.

"Well this is interesting," Carrie heard Professor Chambers remark from outside the tube.

"What's interesting?" Carrie asked as she stopped drumming her fingers on the table and listened to what the Professor was saying.

"According to this scan your brain has an extra lobe dedicated entirely to your biotics." Chambers noted "This extra lobe is right at the base of your skull connected to your cerebellum and nestled alongside your brain stem and contains extremely high concentrations of Element Zero as one would expect. It appears to function as an organic equivalent of a biotic implant-not unexpected, after all the asari have something similar. What is unusual is that there appear to be extra nerves connecting directly into your spinal cord from your biotic lobe."

"What purpose do you think they serve?" Carrie asked "Though come to think of it they could explain why my hands move involuntarily when I use my biotics."

"That happens with all biotics," Chambers clarified "it's caused by energy feedback, but if that feedback is bypassing your Cerebellum and stimulating your muscles directly that could be mitigating some of the neural stress that causes the L2 side effects."

"So that's it?" Carrie asked.

"I doubt that's all of it," Chambers corrected "but it would explain some of it, according to my readings your biotic lobe also resonates at a slightly higher frequency and lower amplitude than the L2 biotic implants-maybe that means that less energy is wasted, maybe the wasted energy causes harmful effects in the L2s instead of doing what it's supposed to do."

"All this technobabble is way over my head at present," Carrie remarked "maybe some day I'll actually understand it but for now the only tech I understand is how to hack a bank account-and using my omni tool. And I only understand hacking because the Reds taught it to me."

"Maria can teach you your biotics and I can teach you the tech," Chambers offered "well-we're done for today-do you have everything ready for your trip?"

"All packed," Carrie confirmed "When are you going to tell me where we're going?"

"When we get to the spaceport."

 **ssssss**

It didn't take long for Carrie to get changed and grab her already packed bags one the exams were done for the day, after that she met up with Professor Chambers and Maria at the waiting skycar.

As they were climbing in Maria pulled out a couple of energy bars of the kind that were specifically formulated for the nutritional requirements of biotics, passing one to Carrie and keeping the other for herself.

"Eat up," Maria instructed "we biotics gotta keep our carbs up unless we want to give ourselves hypothermia every time we use our powers."

"Thanks," Carrie replied as she peeled off the wrapper and began to eat "so I hear you were one of the kids who were dragged off to Jump Zero?"

"Yep," Maria confirmed "Jump Zero aka Hell in Space-or perhaps Chamberlain Mark 2-we all just called it Brain Camp. Big space station built right at the edge of the Sol system, originally intended to be 'The Grand Gateway to The Galaxy' then the Charon mass relay was discovered and Jump Zero was abandoned-until just after the First Contact War when it was re purposed for the training of biotic kids for the military."

"You wanted to be a soldier?" Carrie asked.

"Wanting had nothing to do with it back then," Maria explained "some bigwigs in Alliance brass got all excited about a new resource they could exploit for the military and conveniently forgot that they were dealing with real people-with rights and feelings."

"That last part sounds familiar," Carrie noted dryly.

"Y'think?" Maria asked rhetorically "why do you think I referred to the Biotic Acclimation And Temperance training held on Jump Zero as Chamberlain Mark 2. To make matters worse they started cutting corners, brought in a retired Turian Commander named Vyrnnus Cirix. He used to introduce himself to us kids at Brain Camp by boasting about how he 'was at the helm of the dreadnaught that killed your father'. He pushed us like only someone like you would believe or be able to imagine-either you came out as some kind of super soldier or you snapped and ended up in therapy, if you didn't die."

"You came out a super soldier?" Carrie asked tentatively.

"I came out a wreck," Maria corrected "Physically and mentally-thanks to the therapy sessions I've recovered mentally, physically not so much. Not until I can get a biotic implant that doesn't give me headaches and crippling physical pain."

"I hope that the tests the Professor is running on me can provide the key to that," Carrie prayed "how bad off were you mentally?"

"Care-if I could recover then you definitely can," Maria assured the cute strawberry blonde "What you went through was at least as hellish as Brain Camp, but you seem to be handling it a lot better than I did-they had to tranq me to drag me out of that place, put one poor bastard in critical care."

"What happened to Vyrnnus?" Carrie asked.

She wanted to know that the abusive bastard answered for his crimes.

"He got his in the end," Maria replied simply.

"Did you give it to him?"

Maria snorted in response.

"I wish."

 **ssssss**

"So where are we going Professor?" Carrie asked as they walked toward the spaceport from the parking lot.

"A colony world called Ferris Fields," Chambers told Carrie "your therapist will be coming with us and my daughter will be as well."

Chambers nodded in the direction of an auburn haired woman with her nine year old redheaded daughter beside her as they walked toward the trio.

"Carrietta-this is my wife Doctor Hannah Chambers, who is also your assigned therapist and my daughter Kelly."

"Hey there," Carrie was soon smiling in spite of herself-little Kelly was adorable.

"Hello Miss White," Kelly waved and smiled "Daddy told me about you and I knew that you needed a friend-can I be your friend?"

"I think I'd like that Kelly," Carrie smiled back.

"Such a sweet girl isn't she?" Hannah noted "a lot like you actually Carrie."

"If I'm so sweet then why did I kill those people?" Carrie asked quietly.

"Because they hurt you," Kelly interrupted with the innocence of a child.

"What they did to you left you severely traumatised," Hannah explained "it's called Post Traumatic Stress and in extreme cases it can make a person violent, suicidal or both."

"You're not worried about having a crazy biotic near your wife and kid?" Carrie asked Professor Chambers and Doctor Chambers.

"I trust you Carrie," Professor David Chambers assured the biotic teen as they began passing through the check in terminal "you need to learn to trust yourself-that's what this trip is about."

"How do you mean?" Carrie asked with a slight frown.

"This is a part of your rehabilitation," Doctor Hannah Chambers explained "you've been exposed to far too much of the dark side of humanity in your life-it's time you got to see the good in humanity. I figure a small colony where people help each other might be a good place to see that."

"I like the sound of that," Carrie decided with a shy little smile.

"Just one thing," David Chambers remarked.

"Yes?"

"While you were posthumously-or not so posthumously cleared of all charges regarding Black Prom due to the fact that you were driven to the point of snapping by severe mental trauma-there are still people who seek to vilify you even now," David told Carrie "the name Carrie White might cause problems if such people are present-it would probably be best if you went by a different name while we're there-you'd only need to change your surname really. You'll probably end up having to go by a different name to protect yourself anyway-you can look upon this as a chance to try one out."

Carrie had to admit that what the Professor had just said made sense-and she didn't think she still deserved to go by the White surname anyway.

"But what name should I go by," Carrie remarked thoughtfully "Whitman? No-too similar. Black? Too cliché. Bishop? Ugh-definitely not. Gunn? Too ominous. And Carrie Underwood is taken."

 **ssssss**

Once everybody was aboard the ship Carrie had taken the time to contact Emily Wong using the omni tool that Chambers had given her.

She was still figuring out half of the functions of this remarkable device, but she had the basic ones down thanks to the Professor's tutoring.

"So how angry was your mother about you running away?" Carrie asked.

"Pretty upset," Emily confessed then added the quip "But she didn't lock me in a closet or anything."

"Better Mom than my Momma," Carrie noted "I would have been lucky if that was all that happened."

"Well I'm back in school now," Emily reported "Thinking of getting a job in journalism when I graduate from college and my Mom is slightly less upset with me now, maybe when I'm not grounded any more we can catch up. Say in about six months?"

"Promise me there wont be any gunfire this time," Carrie insisted "I know concussive rounds don't actually put holes in you but they still hurt-getting the breath knocked out of me was no fun, neither was being forced to upchuck my lunch."

"I'm sorry," Emily apologised, a guilty look plain on her face "are you all right? I know sometimes those things can crack a rib or two."

"I still have a little bit of a bruise," Carrie shrugged "but nothing serious."

"That's good," Emily sighed in relief "I hated firing a gun at my friend-even if it was just stun rounds."

"It's forgiven," Carrie smiled "so you're intending to pursue a career in journalism then?"

"Mm hmm," Emily confirmed "Dig out the truth about the wicked and corrupt and expose it for the galaxy to see."

"I think you'd be good at that," Carrie remarked thoughtfully "If there's ever a way I can help you out just ask."

"Thanks Care-you're a good friend," Emily told the young biotic "Those idiots at Ewen didn't realise what they were missing out on-so what's happening on your end?"

"Chambers is taking me on a trip to some colony called Ferris Fields so that I can get a look at the nicer side of humanity," Carrie told her friend "There's just one little wrinkle in the plan-the name 'Carrietta White' could possibly throw the nice right out the window in a heartbeat, he suggested going by a different name but I can't decide on one."

"A whole different name or-?"

"He said I probably just need to change my surname," Carrie explained.

"Well Finch was always complaining about how you 'kept looking after the lost sheep' but that isn't a bad thing like he insisted it was," Emily remarked "It's a good thing, so why not choose a name that allows you to wear that charitable nature of yours with pride."  
"I'm assuming you have a suggestion?" Carrie asked with a raised brow.

"I do," Emily confirmed "how about-Carrietta Shepard."

"I think I like that one," Carrie decided "Shepard it is."

"Glad you like it Care," Emily smiled on the other side of the omni tool's holoscreen "Uh-I gotta go now, my Mom's calling me."

"Yeah, you're right Em," Carrie agreed "can't keep her waiting and I need to tell Chambers the name I decided on. I'll talk to you later but for now, I should go."

 **ssssss**

Undisclosed location

"Mr Harper," the voice came from the doorway to the room, the figure that had spoken still hidden by the shadows of the passageway outside.

"Yes, what is it?" Harper responded.

"It seems the rumours we have been hearing were true," the figure in the doorway told Harper "the grave of Carrietta White has indeed been exhumed and as remarkable as it seems she has survived all this time in biotic stasis."

"I see," Harper noted calmly "she may prove an asset to humanity in the years to come-what is the White girl's status at present?"

"She's with the Professor at the institute," the figure at the door supplied "there's more-an alliance Major by the name of Steven Hackett has taken a personal interest in the girl-although he has yet to introduce himself to her."

"Acquiring the girl herself is out of the question then," Harper decided reluctantly "Her disappearance would be noticed-what about a sample of her DNA?"

"What do you want me to do Sir?" the figure asked.

"Obtaining one of the blood samples from the institute is out of the question," Harper decided "We need an opportunity to catch the girl alone and take the sample directly from her. If we disguise this as an accident or a random assault on the street and we act quickly then we should have the sample and be away before she can react."

"At present the Professor is taking her on a trip to Ferris Fields as a part of her therapy," the figure supplied "Apparently to show her the more positive side of humanity."

"Go to Ferris Fields and watch the girl discreetly," Harper instructed "An opportunity may present itself to extract the sample."

"I will do as you ask," the figure agreed before turning to depart.

"One more thing," Harper called out before this could happen.  
"Yes?"

"Take this dart gun," Harper instructed " along with a standard tranquilliser the darts are filled with a substance that will make-securing Miss White's cooperation a little easier in the unlikely event that the tranquilliser should wear off too soon."

"You think that might happen?"

"I believe in being prepared," Harper responded "she has already displayed one trait that other humans don't have, who can say that she won't display others?"

 **ssssss**

Aboard the civilian transport _Holiday Dreams._

Carrie had been on her way up to talk to Professor Chamber and tell him the name she had decided on-at least for now when Maria had practically dragged her up onto the observation deck.

"We're approaching the Charon mass relay," Maria had explained "You really should see this."

"I'm sure it's something to see Maria," Carrie protested "But I really need to talk to the Professor and-."

Carrie's sentence abruptly cut off as soon as she caught sight of the mass relay.

She had never seen anything like it, it look like nothing so much as an enormous tuning fork-easily hundreds of times larger than the ship they were aboard with an orb of blinding white light up the top, just down from where the prongs joined to one another.

Spinning continuously around this glowing white orb were a set of interconnected metal rings that in turn were connected to the inside of the 'fork'.

"Wow."

This was the only comment that Carrie could think of-the sight had rendered her speechless.

"I know, right," Maria agreed "To think that the civilisation that built the mass relays disappeared fifty thousand years ago-yet their legacy lives on to this day."

"What civilisation was that?" Carrie asked "They must have been masters of engineering."

"The Protheans," Maria explained "over fifty millennia ago their empire spanned the entire galaxy, they built the mass relays and the Citadel, they created the first mass effect technology-modern galactic civilisation is built upon their legacy. Then fifty thousand years ago they just-vanished, nobody knows why."

"Approaching the Charon Mass Relay," the voice of the ship's pilot announced over the intercom "all systems are green, initiating mass relay travel in five, four, three, two, _one._ "

The view of the mass relay was lost as the space around the ship blurred into a shimmering, glowing tunnel.

"Impressive sight isn't it?" Professor Chambers asked as he approached the young girl.

"Incredible," Carrie agreed "I'm glad you chartered this ship and brought me on this journey Professor."

"You deserve to see the better side of the galaxy Carrie," Chamber assured her "Have you decided on what name you want to use while you're at Ferris Fields?"

"I have," Carrie confirmed quietly "I want to be known as Carrietta Shepard-at least for now."

"Shepard it is," Chambers agreed.

 **ssssss**

Ferris Fields, four hours later.

Carrie smiled as she took in the sight of Ferris Fields for the first time.

It was a small agricultural colony with a population of maybe a couple of thousand people, the world it was established on was slightly arid but habitable.

As the ship touched down on the landing platform Carrie was waiting, travel bag in hand for the landing ramp to lower.

Professor David Chambers, Doctor Hannah Chambers, Maria Wills and little Kelly Chambers were there as well.

As the ramp lowered and the group walked down they were greeted by a tall slender brunette woman in simple tan coloured casual clothes.

"David," the woman greeted Professor Chambers "it's good to see you again, I see your family looks to be well, as does Maria-and this must be the young biotic girl you told me about, Carrie-."

"Carrietta Shepard," Carrie supplied, making sure to use the identity she had decided on.

"I'm Jelena Hernandez-the leader of this colony," the tall woman-Jelena introduced herself as she leaned in closer to Carrie and whispered "don't worry-I won't tell anybody about your-previous surname."

"You know who I am?" Carrie asked in surprise.

"I do," Jelena confirmed "but don't worry-I'm on your side. Your secret is safe with me."

"Thank you," Carrie responded gratefully.

While Carrie might still have had some trust issues she trusted Maria and she trusted the Professor, so far they had helped her so if they trusted Jelena then Carrie was willing to do likewise-for now.

"Well," Jelena offered "Let's give you the tour."

 **sssssss**

Aboard a Blood Pack transport.

Weyrloc Salamul took another glance at the pitiful troops at his command.

A pack of miserable vorcha, a couple of whelps who only recently passed the rite and some varren to serve as attack beasts.

 _This is what I am given to take down a colony?_

This group wasn't fit to take down a bunch of petty street thugs.

 _Damn Kalusk, damn him to hell that insufferable son of a pyjack._

Still, they were only colonists and human colonists at that.

 _We should manage-even if the vorcha Kalusk keeps giving me are crap shots._

 **ssssss**

"And this is the financial area of the colony, where the farmers who make the surrounding area their home can purchase any supplies they might need to keep their agricultural enterprises running," Jelena told the group.

"While we're here we'll be helping to move supplies out to farmers who need them and also into the colony proper," David Chambers explained "I figure a little volunteer work will help you to see the good you can do for the galaxy Carrie, and this is one place where your biotics may well be appreciated for the fact that they can make a hard job easier."

"I'm up for it," Carrie agreed with a smile "When do we start?"

The prospect of helping some people who needed it and might appreciate her efforts was certainly not unwelcome.

 _I might find a purpose in it,_ Carrie thought to herself.

"Tomorrow morning," Chambers-no David informed her "for now we should get settled into our accommodations and get some rest."

 **ssssss**

Unknown time and place.

Carrie paused for a moment as she tried to figure out where she was.

Decorations, a stage, lots of girls in pretty dresses and guys in tuxes, tables set up with refreshments.

 _That's right, I'm at prom-I remember now,_ Carrie realised as she recognised the Ewen High gym _Tommy asked me to prom-and for the first time nobody is being mean to me-people are actually being nice._

 _No feet stuck out to trip me, no books slapped out of my hands for the hell of it, no one calling me Creepy Carrie, Crazy Carrie or Bible Retard-I could get used to this._

Carrie smiled in spite of herself as she caught sight of one of the few people at Ewen High who had ever been kind to her before this night.

"Miss Desjarden," Carrie greeted her gym teacher happily as she hugged Rita Desjarden tightly.

"I trust you're having a good time Carrie?" Rita asked.

"For the first time I'm actually happy," Carrie confided.

The rest of the evening went uneventfully until it came time for the Prom King and Prom Queen to be announced.

"And this year's Prom King and Queen-and it was close," the student who had been chosen to make the announcement told the assembled audience "Tommy Ross and Carrie White."

Carrie could scarcely believe it, years of being bullied by practically everyone and beaten up by her own mother over the tiniest things, even locked in a closet for hours or days at a time.

Now she was Prom Queen, as she walked with Tommy up onto the stage, standing beside him as they were crowned and then-.

And then it was all torn away from her in an instant.

Blood-everywhere, all over her, dropped on her from above, the blood had gotten on Tommy's tux as well, Carrie could see this as she looked at him.

Was he in on this sick joke?

No-he looked just as shocked and angry as Carrie felt and what he said next confirmed this.

"What the _hell_?"

Carrie couldn't face this, she wished she could just crawl into a hole and die-she turned and walked off the stage.

 _If I stay I'll probably kill someone._

Miss Desjarden ran up to Carrie, intent on sheltering the distraught girl from any more horror but Carrie just wanted to be left alone.

Without even thinking about it Carrie stretched out a hand and telekinetically knocked her gym teacher backward.

"Carrie-wait," Tommy called out as he started after her.

And then the metal bucket that had contained the blood fell, the rim striking the top of Tommy's head and fracturing his skull-killing him instantly.

Carrie felt numb as she walked over to Tommy's motionless body, cradling his head in her lap and weeping as she realised that he was dead, the anger rising inside her as it built to a dangerous crescendo.

 _They killed him-they killed Tommy._

More pain and humiliation followed as a video recording flashed up on the screens either side of the stage, Carrie immediately recognised it as a recording of her humiliation in the shower room when she had gotten her first period and freaked out because she didn't know what it was.

She remembered just how it felt to have that terror made even worse by being bombarded with tampons and sanitary pads courtesy of Chris and her friends.

" _Plug it up, plug it up, plug it up."_

The recorded chant sounded out to everybody present-Carrie could hear it clearly.

It was maddening.

And then the laughter started, laughter at her expense.

Carrie felt the blood start levitating off of her arms.

 _Shut up,_ Carrie thought angrily _Tommy is dead, don't you even care about that?_

 _Are you that heartless._

"Nooooooo," Carrie screamed as she lashed out with her powers, the shock wave generated flipping over chairs and tables throughout the entirety of the gym and knocking everybody off of their feet.

 _Finally, they stopped laughing._

 _ **But they're not crying yet-so hurt them.**_

The voice that had just spoken into Carrie's mind was deep, ancient and vaguely metallic and it sounded like it could shake a planet.

And Carrie found that she could not disobey-for in this moment she knew in some way that she couldn't explain that it was the voice of her God.

Everybody panicked and ran for the exits in a blind panic at Carrie's show of power.

 _Leaving so soon?_

Reaching out with her mind Carrie closed all of the doors and held them shut.

 _ **Kill them.**_

 _So proud of your pretty face Heather that you have to rub it in mine all the time-what happens if I mess it up?_

Heather was propelled face first into one of the doors, her nose all but pulped by the impact as she fell limp to the floor-unconscious or dead?

It was impossible to be sure.

 _Freddy-there you are with your camera-were you recording my humiliation for posterity?_

Freddy was soon nailed by a flying table.

Carrie flexed with her power, the stage lights fell to the stage below and set the curtains alight, she flexed again and a pair of electrical cables tore themselves free of the walls and took on a snakelike life of their own.

FLEX

All of the fire sprinklers turned on

Carrie caught sight of Tina Blake running for her life hand in hand with Mr Ulman.

 _It all makes sense now Tina-you little slut,_ Carrie thought furiously _now I know why he went along with all the shit you and the rest put me through._

FLEX.

One of the crescent moon decorations tore itself free and went hurtling in the direction of the pair, forcing them apart, the telekinetically animated cables moved in Tina's direction.

 _Hey Tina-remember that nettle you whipped me with at Christian Youth Camp?_

SNAP.

Carrie lashed Tina with the cable.

 _Payback's a bitch isn't it?_

SNAP.

 _Or what about how you and Chris ducked me again and again until I nearly drowned?_

SNAP.

 _Having fun yet?_

 _ **Kill her.**_

 _Gladly._

A few more lashes and Tina was engulfed in flames and burning to death.

Carrie was about to drop the cables into the water pooled on the floor from the sprinklers when she spotted Miss Desjarden among the crowd on the floor of the gym.

FLEX.

Rita Desjarden was levitated away from the danger area-none too gently though, she was having trouble breathing from Carrie's grip.

 _ **Kill her.**_

 _But she was kind to me,_ Carrie protested mentally-questioning her God's will for the first time.

 _ **Do it.**_

 _No,_ Carrie refused as she threw Miss Desjarden to safety _I won't-these others on the other hand-._

Carrie dropped the cables into the water, electrocuting everybody on the floor.

"Why did you do that Carrie?" Miss Desjarden demanded "you killed them all-you're some kind of monster."

And Carrie realised that the voice that she thought was God wasn't-it was something dark and unutterably evil.

"I-no-I," Carrie couldn't think of what to say as her anger disappeared, guilt quickly replacing it "I'm sorry-I'm so sorry."

Carrie wanted to die, this horror around her was her doing.

"I'M SORRY," Carrie screamed as the gym disappeared to be replaced by a dimly lit room as she found herself sitting up in terror from a soft bed, her breath coming in short-ragged gasps.

"Shh-it's okay honey, you're all right," after a moment Carrie recognised the voice of the person embracing her as belonging to Hannah Chambers as she began to remember where she was "it was just a dream."

"Not a dream-a memory," Carrie corrected "I killed them all. I should be dead after what I did-I don't deserve to live."

"Yes you do," Hannah insisted gently "what you did that night isn't a reflection of who you are-it was aberrant behaviour brought on by severe PTSD. That's what I'm here to help you recover from."

"Maybe euthanasia would be a better option," Carrie suggested.

"No, it wouldn't," Hannah corrected the troubled teen "you can come back from this Carrie, I know you can."

"I suppose I can try," Carrie agreed.

"If you don't feel up to working tomorrow, I can explain to-."

"No," Carrie insisted "I'm up for it, I'm not going to let a nightmare stop me."

"Are you sure?" Hannah asked "if you need time to deal with this then-."

"Please," Carrie insisted "I need to use my powers to do something good instead of hurting people."

"Okay," Hannah conceded "get some rest if you can."

 **ssssss**

The next came and Carrie was ready to help with whatever supplies needed moving, and although a few people were nervous around her and Maria due to prejudice against biotics most appreciated the help.

And although she was still troubled by the nightmare she had had and her lingering guilt over Black Prom she was able to set that aside for the time being.

Presently Carrie was helping to unload medical supplies at the colony hospital, a middle aged female doctor was taking inventory as she did.

"Okay-put the antibiotics over there please Carrie," Doctor West instructed as she pointed to the wall next to some shelves in the medicine storage room.

With a simple nod Carrie floated the crate of antibiotics over to where Doctor West had instructed, then moved on to the next crate-which contained a large supply of medi gel.

Under instruction from the doctor Carrie soon had that crate moved where it needed to go as well.

And so it went until the job was done a scant half hour later.

Doctor West certainly seemed to appreciate the help.

"You're a good worker Carrie Shepard," West noted in satisfaction as she passed Carrie a credit chit "a tip for your trouble."

"Thank you," Carrie replied gratefully "but this is supposed to be volunteer work so I can't accept it."

"Think of it as a donation sweetie," Doctor West insisted "You look like you could use a bit more kindness in your life."

"Thank you-really," Carrie smiled as she finally relented and accepted the money "I won't forget this."

Carrie smiled as she climbed back into the skytruck with Maria and the truck driver Gus Reynolds.  
"She's nice," Carrie decided with a smile still present on her face "I like her."

"She is a nice lady isn't she," Maria agreed.

Gus smiled at the exchange as the three of them buckled up and he lifted off and headed back to the landing pad to pick up the next load of supplies.

"Chambers told me that you two have lived rough lives-you especially Carrie," Gus remarked "I guess you appreciate kindness more than most do."

"It's a welcome change," Carrie replied simply "I've decided that I like doing this work-makes me feel like I'm doing God's work for once."

"You really still believe in God after all the crap you've suffered through?" Maria asked with a raised brow.

"Hey, don't make fun of my beliefs," Carrie protested "My faith was all that got me through half of that crap."

"Whatever works for you," Maria shrugged "Personally I prefer to imagine what it would feel like to punch that Turian asshole's face in-with biotic assistance."

"Didn't Kaidan Alenko already do something similar as you mentioned this morning?" Carrie quipped "Besides, to my knowledge most Turians are okay-I'm pretty sure that Septimus Oraka is a good man."

"For having a stick up his ass most likely," Maria remarked dryly "Turians can be uncompromising bastards when they want to be-but I guess most of them are good people."

"Picturing someone I hate getting hurt is a tactic I've used to cope myself actually," Carrie admitted shamefaced "When I got really angry about something those creeps did to me it was all I could do to not explode-I remember picturing Chris Hargenson bloody, covered in rats and begging for mercy once."

"You wouldn't be the first person to wish that on a bully," Maria reassured Carrie "Yours is a pretty creative version of that mind you-remind me never to piss you off."

"It takes a lot to piss me off Maria," Carrie assured the other biotic "Over the years I have developed a very thick skin."

 **sssssss**

A couple of deliveries later and it was time for lunch, Carrie had chosen a spot apart from the others, just around the corner of the building they were sitting around.

As much as Carrie liked Maria and was starting to like Gus being around other people who were actually kind to her instead of cruel was still new to the young girl and she needed some time to herself from time to time.

Carrie had opened her lunch box and was about to grab her sandwich out to eat when she felt something suddenly stab into her neck, reaching up she grabbed the offending object and pulled it out.

It was an injection dart-a now empty injection dart.

And Carrie could already feel whatever was in it taking effect.

"Son of a-."

Carrie lost consciousness.

 **ssssss**

Cerberus Agent 74 nodded in satisfaction as he saw the White girl succumb to the effects of the tranquilliser in the dart he had just hit her with.

 _Now to get the blood sample before she wakes up._

Taking his time as he sat beside the unconscious girl the Cerberus agent pulled a syringe from the hard case in his pocket, leaning down toward the girl to insert the needle into her neck and extract the sample.

Then the unexpected happened.

Carrie White moved, cracking open one eye and shooting a glare at Agent 74 that could freeze water.

 _No fucking way the tranquilliser could have worn off that fast,_ Agent 74 thought in denial as he sat himself astride the girl and used his weight to hold her down _what the hell is this girl?_

A moment later an invisible force propelled Agent 74 backward, catapulting him a full fifteen feet.

 _What the fuck?_ Agent 74 thought in shock _That dart had omega enkaphalin in it-she shouldn't be able to use her biotics for the next five days._

Carrie sat up, a very unfriendly expression on her face and one hand extended as Agent 74 felt himself lifted into the air by an invisible force.

"Who are you?" she demanded "Why did you dart me? Who are you working for?"

"I'll-never tell you," Agent 74 gasped "kill me if you want-it changes nothing. Everything that has taken place here has already been transmitted to my superiors"

"Kill you? No," Carrie denied as Agent 74 caught sight of her companions approaching around the corner "I already have enough blood on my hands thank you very much-turn you over to the authorities so they can wring the truth out of you? I might even lend a hand with that."

"I don't think so," Agent 74 replied as he bit down hard on a specific fake tooth in his mouth.

Within seconds he was convulsing and foaming at the mouth as Carrie dropped him in shock-in less than a minute he was dead.

 **ssssss**

Carrie stared in shock at the corpse, unable to wrap her mind around this.

"I didn't-I swear I didn't-."

"I know you didn't Carrie," Maria reassured the strawberry blonde biotic "the bastard had a suicide pill."

Maria walked up to the corpse, leaning closer and taking a quick sniff.

"Smells like sour almonds," Maria noted "Cyanide."

Carrie was relieved that she wasn't responsible for this man's death, though still horrified at the death itself.

"How did he-?"

"Most likely hidden inside a false tooth," Maria informed Carrie "What? I may not have wanted to be at BAAT but I did pay attention to some of the lessons there-and they weren't all on the use of biotics."

"We should notify the authorities," Carrie suggested "I hope I'm not in trouble for this."

"They'll understand what happened," Maria reassured Carrie "They may need you to give a statement as a witness though."

"Yeah," Carrie agreed "But I'm just as in the dark about this as anybody else."

"Afterwards I suggest you take the rest of the day off," Maria suggested "and get Hannah to start your first therapy session."

 **sssssss**

Later

Carrie sat in the chair across from Hannah, looking down pensively as she tried to think of what to say.

Fortunately Hannah sensed her unease and spoke first.

"Professor Chambers analysed the residue inside that dart that was used on you," Doctor Hannah Chambers remarked "He told me that it was a powerful tranquilliser and that the amount used should have rendered you insensate for the next six hours."

"I guess tranquillisers don't work so well on me," Carrie responded quietly.

"There was another substance present as well," Hannah added "You said he seemed surprised that you could still use your biotics?"

Carrie nodded.

"Best guess would be that it was meant to suppress your biotics."

"When that man started shaking and foaming at the mouth I thought I'd killed him," Carrie finally confided "You can't imagine my relief when Maria revealed that he did it to himself. Why would he do that? When I tried to kill myself after what happened with Momma it was because I couldn't live with what I'd done-but why did he kill himself?"

"To avoid betraying his superiors most likely," Hannah suggested.

"Whoever he worked for-he must have been fanatically loyal to them," Carrie remarked "If he'd kill himself to avoid betraying them."

"This bothers you? Not knowing who his superiors are or why they're interested in you?"

"I know why they're interested in me," Carrie corrected "my power-my natural biotics. They want to study them, probably turn me into some kind of killing machine-I don't want to kill again-not after-."

Carrie's sentence broke off due to the lump in her throat.

"I can understand why that haunts you," Hannah told Carrie sympathetically "But you are not to blame for what happened-when a person snaps all control over their actions is gone."

"Maybe I shouldn't have taken what they did so personally," Carrie responded quietly "Maybe I deserved it."

"No Carrie-you didn't deserve it," Hannah assured the biotic teen "What they did to you was an injustice, they went out of their way to make you feel like something was wrong with you-but there is nothing wrong with you Carrie. What happened that night was caused by trauma that _they_ inflicted on you-you're not some sociopath. Okay so your mother was a religious fanatic who made enemies of practically everybody but that was something wrong with _her_ not you-and if those idiots couldn't see the difference then that was something wrong with _them._ "

"I-suppose so," Carrie admitted hesitantly.

"The only problem is that you lack confidence," Hannah informed the young girl "People have beaten you down for so long that your sense of self worth is far less than it should be."

Carrie only nodded in response.

"Would you like to change Carrie?" Hannah asked "I can help you to be the person you can be instead of who they forced you to be."

Carrie looked up in surprise at this.

"I-have a choice?"

"Yes," Hannah confirmed.

"Help me to change-please."

 **sssss**

After talking with her therapist Carrie found that she felt significantly better.

She still felt guilty about what she had done so long ago and probably always would, she was still traumatised by the hellish life she had led up until the long period of time she had spent sleeping and that trauma would take some time to heal.

But for the first time Carrie actually felt like there was a way out of the nightmare-and maybe-.

 _Maybe someday I can protect others who are victims._

It was a nice thought.

And Carrie slept soundly for the first time since prom, not knowing that she would be protecting others far sooner than she expected.

But her sleep was once again interrupted, not by nightmares this time though.

She was woken by explosions to a colony under attack.

 **ssssss**

 **To Be Continued.**


	5. Episode 5: Colonial Life Part 2

**The Good Shepherd**

 **Episode 5: Colonial Life Part 2**

Mass Effect is owned by Bioware.

Carrie is owned by Stephen King.

The 2013 version of Carrie is owned by Metro Goldwyn Mayer productions and director Kimberly Pierce.

The only things I own are this crossover of the two and any original characters that may be featured.

 **ssssss**

Carrie sat up in bed at the sound of explosions outside.

 _What's going on,_ she wondered _who is attacking the colony?_

"Carrie?" Maria called as the door was opened, apparently by means of an emergency override and the other biotic walked in wearing some kind of high tech armor with the helmet held under her arm and a pistol attached to her hip "Ah good, you're up. Get dressed quickly we're under attack and I need to get you to the emergency shelters-the colony militia are doing what they can but they need all the help they can get so I need to get back to them."

For a moment Carrie almost went along with that plan but then something occurred to her.

 _With my powers I should be helping defend the colony._

"I'm not going to the shelters," Carrie denied "these people have been kind to me, so if they're fighting to defend their home then I want to help."

"Need I remind you of your value to the Alliance?" Maria asked the young girl.

"I know but-I can help," Carrie insisted "and if this colony falls I'm as good as dead anyway."

"I can't let you Carrie," Maria countered "Chambers would freak."

"Which Chambers-Doctor or Professor?"

"Both," Maria clarified.

"Just tell them that you couldn't stop me," Carrie suggested "technically the truth."

"Your biotics would be helpful," Maria admitted "but do you know how to use a firearm?"

"The Reds showed me how to use a pistol," Carrie told Maria "I've never fired one in combat before though."

"First time for everything," Maria noted thoughtfully "Are you sure about this Carrie? You'll most likely have to kill again."

"I'm sure," Carrie decided after a moment's hesitation, she was scared as hell but she sure wasn't going to let that stop her "as for killing-I'll probably hate myself for it later but if it has to be done then-."

"That's good enough," Maria decided "let's get you a hardsuit and a pistol."

"You mean like what you're wearing?" Carrie asked.

"Exactly," Maria confirmed "Follow me."

"Lead the way to the armoury," Carrie agreed as she followed.

As they stepped out the door the two biotics were ambushed by some-thing wielding an assault rifle.

The creature looked like some kind of bizarre cross between man and bat with bony protrusions sprouting from the elbows, it's flesh was bare, hideously ridged and light tan in colour with a sickly yellowish undertone, it's eyes looked utterly insane and it's mouth was full of long sharp yellowish teeth.

"Kill you," the creature shrieked as it took aim at the pair.

Carrie reacted instinctively, lashing out with her biotics and flinging the creature back-it slammed into a wall in a sickening crunch of breaking bones and dropped to the ground, still trying to crawl towards them until Maria whipped out her pistol and calmly put two rounds into it's head.

"Stinking vorcha," the armor clad biotic muttered, turning her head she caught Carrie's horrified expression at her own part in this "don't let it get to you Care-you just saved both our lives and personally I call killing vorcha a public service."

"Uh, right," Carrie nodded as she pushed her guilt aside for the time being "so who are we fighting."

"Well," Maria noted "Judging from the fact that as far as I know the leader is a Krogan, and flanked by two younger Krogan, the colour scheme of the armour worn by those Krogan and the presence of so many vorcha my guess would be Blood Pack mercs."

"Right," Carrie remarked thoughtfully"Blood Pack huh? I already detest them with a name like that."

 **ssssss**

Unknown Location

Jack Harper focused intently on the information transmitted to him by Agent 74's Ocular implants in the agent's final moments.

Apparently there was more to the White girl than just natural biotics.

 _Heightened resistance to drugs and toxins and-immune to the effects of omega enkaphalin._

Omega enkaphalin was a drug that Cerberus had developed as a way for humanity to disable enemy biotics en masse-it had been tested on asari captives to ensure it's effectiveness.

However, before it could be used in the field Cerberus needed a way to make their own biotics immune to it's effects.

And the key to that lay in Carrie White's DNA.

Obtaining a sample of the girl's DNA would prove difficult however-he'd need somebody who was up to the task.

But in any case he knew that his researchers at the Teltin facility would be interested in this.

 **ssssss**

Maria smirked as she glanced back at Carrie and the hardsuit she had chosen from the armoury.

"You just had to choose the pink hardsuit," Maria remarked in slight amusement as the two hunkered behind cover.

"I've been told I look good in pink," Carrie responded "Tommy Ross made that remark about my prom dress."

"That's right," Maria recalled "your prom dress was pink wasn't it? I remember seeing that in some surviving footage of your prom before you got drenched in blood. I'm surprised that you'd want to wear something that reminds you of that night though."

"Not all of it was bad," Carrie countered as she briefly leaned out of cover and popped a vorcha in the head before biotically lifting a dozen more into the air "before Chris made a bloody nuisance of herself prom night actually holds some of my happiest memories."

"I guess you hold on to what you can," Maria agreed as she proceeded to systematically shoot the vorcha that Carrie had levitated one by one "I can relate really."

"Brain Camp?" Carrie asked simply as the two dropped back down behind cover.

"Yep, hated being there but I made some good friends," Maria confided as she raised her head to look and spotted one remaining vorcha from the group "be right back."

"What are you-?"

Carrie didn't have time to finish her sentence before she caught the shimmer of a biotic field around Maria's body for a moment before the other biotic shot forward like a human missile and slammed into the remaining vorcha, all but ripping it in half on impact.

Before it could recover she pumped a half dozen rounds into it's head and chest silencing it for good.

Turning Maria caught sight of another group of vorcha approaching, wasting no time at all she sprinted back to where Carrie was still behind cover, diving down behind the half ruined wall barely in time to avoid being hit with a deadly barrage of small arms fire.

"Nicely done just now," Carrie remarked, pushing her horror and guilt at the situation to one side and focusing on keeping herself and her allies alive "Toro toro."

"Biotic charge, my personal favourite," Maria replied with a smirk "and let me demonstrate another technique I like-shockwave."

Carrie caught sight of the shimmer of another biotic field around Maria's right hand before she thrust that hand forward and every vorcha in a more or less direct line with her hand for thirty feet was slammed backward by an invisible force.

"That one I like," Carrie decided as she popped up briefly, putting a couple of rounds in a vorcha's chest before biotically snapping another vorcha's neck.

"We need to join up with the rest of the militia," Maria told the young biotic as she peeked above the wall, catching sight of a couple of vorcha with what looked like rocket launchers " _shit_ -rocket soldiers- _move._ "

The two dashed out from behind the wall just before a rocket slammed into it, pelting their backs with pieces of the destroyed wall that were thankfully stopped by the kinetic barriers of their suits as they moved behind the burned out ruin of a nearby prefab building.

"Captain Reyes, do you copy?" Maria called out over the communicator built into her omni tool as the two hunkered behind cover "we need your current location-Carrie is with me. She insisted on helping defend the colony and so far is proving useful but we need to pool our efforts."

"You brought Carrie into this? She's just a kid dammit-she shouldn't be fighting."

"Carrie refused to sit this one out," Maria corrected "and it's not as if I could have stopped her anyway."

Carrie leaned out from behind cover, catching sight of one of the vorcha 'Boom Squad' lining up on their position with his rocket launcher.

As he fired she managed to catch the rocket biotically and send it back at him and his squad.

Maria flinched as she heard the explosion.

"Why did the sound of the explosion come from where the vorcha are?" Maria asked with a raised eyebrow.  
"Vorcha rocket trooper just shot himself," Carrie shrugged.

"Good job,"Maria smirked as she caught on.

"Wills-are you still there?" came Captain Reyes' voice over her omni tool "we're at the hospital, the Blood Pack vorcha seem to be after our medical supplies."

"Probably to sell on the black market," Maria noted "we'll be right there."

"If they're at the hospital then I hope Doctor West is all right," Carrie prayed.

 **ssssssss**

It took some time, dodging from cover to cover and fighting off ambushes by groups of vorcha and some kind of dog like reptile-Varren Maria had called them, but eventually Maria and Carrie reached the hospital.

As they arrived they caught sight of the hospital under siege by a large group of vorcha who were led by another kind of alien.

The alien leading the Blood Pack vorcha was clearly of a reptilian species.

He resembled a beefed up version of a komodo dragon on two legs with a very short tail, feet that resembled those of a velociraptor and a head somewhat reminiscent of a gila monster.

The alien's head bore a ridged bony plate somewhat like a crest covering the entire scalp and top of the snout and the lizard man also bore a large hump on his back centred on his shoulders that gave him a somewhat quasi turtle appearance.

He was currently dressed in heavy armor.

 _So that's what a Krogan looks like,_ Carrie thought to herself as she took in the sight of this lizard person.

"Korlash, watch our flank," the Krogan told what appeared to be a younger member of his species with a head plate that was not yet one piece "I doubt this is all the colony's militia has to offer."

"Yes battle master Salamul," the younger Krogan responded.

Moving carefully the two biotics were able to sneak by Salamul and his horde and join up with the colony's defenders where they barred Salamul's way into the hospital using various shipping crates and vehicles as makeshift barricades.

Scattered around were the corpses of several vorcha and varren as well as -unfortunately-a few humans.

"Captain Reyes," Maria called as soon as they were close enough.

"Wills-about time you got here. Why the hell are you letting the kid fight?"

"I told you-she insisted," Maria replied "and given how powerful she is it's not as if I could have stopped her-she's actually proven to be quite a capable little soldier for a novice."

"Well we could certainly use an extra biotic," Reyes noted grimly "Carrie Shepard, can you throw their ranks into disarray for us?"

"How much disarray would you like Sir?" Carrie asked.

"As much as you can manage," Reyes told the pink armoured biotic "cut loose Shepard."

"Cutting loose Sir," Carrie called back as she popped her head up briefly to send a wave of biotic force through the enemy ranks, knocking them all off their feet.

"Fast learner aren't ya," Maria noted with pride in her student "that was the shockwave technique I used earlier."

"Well if it works," Carrie replied with a shrug as she hunkered back behind cover before popping her head up long enough to put a round in a vorcha's head while simultaneously taking note of her environment "I think we can spare a few of those crates and vehicles."

Seconds later the aforementioned objects became missiles as Carrie hurled them at the enemy ranks with her biotics.

 _And look what I just found in those walls either side of our enemy,_ Carrie added silently as electrical cables tore themselves free of said walls and became animate under the influence of Carrie's biotics _time to pull a Tina on those two flunkies that Salamul has with him._

 **ssssssss**

Unlike at prom Carrie didn't waste time toying with the two younger Krogan flanking Salamul, instead she simply rammed an electrical cable into each one's throat with her biotics and watched them fry.

As the remaining vorcha in the group stepped back in shock the other defenders of the colony popped out of cover and began mowing them down.

Moments later the severely depleted enemy dove back behind cover.

"Release the varren," Salamul shouted.

Moments later several of these varren, which looked like the reptilian equivalent of a large dog came running toward them-the solid black eyes and oversized tusk like fangs that these varren bore giving them an unnervingly freakish appearance.

As the colony's defenders opened fire on the war beasts Carrie heard Salamul calling for what was left of his force to fall back while the varren kept the colony's defenders busy.

Carrie used the electrical cables to fry two of the beasts, shot another in the head and biotically tore another three apart as the varren charged.

As she was lining up on a seventh Carrie felt something bite down hard on her right forearm, the long sharp fangs of the varren punching through the plating of her hardsuit and the fabric of her undersuit and stabbing into flesh as the young girl cried out in pain.

"CARRIE," Maria called out in alarm as she realised what was happening and ran to the young biotic's aid as the beast began shaking her wounded arm in it's jaws.

"SHOOT IT-SHOOT THE FUCKING THING," Carrie screamed in desperation and pain as she tried to focus enough to biotically force the varren's jaws open.

 _It had to grab my gun arm,_ Carrie thought in frustration as both Maria and Captain Reyes began pumping shot after shot into the beast's chest until it collapsed.

Once the beast was dead Carrie yanked her arm out of it's jaws.

"I think that was the last one," Captain Reyes noted as he helped Carrie up "good job Shepard-you should consider enlisting."

"I'll give it some thought," Carrie remarked, wincing as she cradled her wounded arm.

"For now we should take you inside and let Doctor West patch you up," Maria suggested.

"One thing I have to do first," Carrie insisted as she held up her good hand and walked up to the side of the dead varren.

With a pissed of shout Carrie delivered the hardest kick she could throw to the dead animal's side.

"Okay I'm done," Carrie decided "let's get my arm patched up."

 **ssssss**

When Doctor Eliza West heard the shooting outside stop she prayed that this meant the attack was over.

She had been unable to head down to the shelters along with the other citizens of the colony because there were patients in the hospital who could not be moved and somebody had to take care of them.

The Chambers family had escorted their daughter Kelly to the shelters and then insisted on helping her with her patients.

A moment later she heard Captain Reyes' voice over the radio he had left with her.

"Doctor West, are you there?"

"I'm here Captain," West replied "are we safe now?"

"Yes, the Blood Pack raiders have broken off their attack and retreated," Reyes reported "I just saw their ship jetting for space a few minutes ago-but we have wounded and unfortunately some fatalities."

"How many?" West asked.

"Not as many as it might have been," Reyes reported "Maria Wills was a big help but your young friend Carrie Shepard was more of one."

"You let Carrie fight?" Doctor Hannah Chambers demanded as she snatched the radio out of Doctor West's hand "You endangered the life of a seventeen year old girl?"

"Reyes didn't _let_ me do anything," Carrie spoke up as she walked in with Maria supporting her, cradling her apparently wounded right forearm as blood seeped out of a hole in the bracer covering it "I insisted-I have all this power and it didn't seem right to do nothing while this colony's people fought for their home. Plus it felt good to protect people."

"Oh god sweetie, you're injured," Hannah noted, her face betraying her concern for Carrie's well being "Come over here and let the doctor treat your wound."

"It's not serious," Carrie denied "there are others hurt worse than me-treat them first."

"Your wound is still bleeding," Professor Chambers insisted as he weighed in on this argument "it needs immediate first aid."

"Some of those militia men and women have life threatening injuries," Carrie countered "A couple of them might never walk again-treat them first. My only injury is an arm that got chewed on by a varren."

As Carrie said this several of the militia were moving the other wounded inside.

"Your wound is life threatening Carrie," Doctor West insisted as she put a hand on the stubborn biotic's shoulder "if the bleeding isn't stopped you could die from blood loss-there are other physicians at this hospital who can treat the others."

"Dammit-okay," Carrie relented as she began unfastening her right bracer to allow access to her wounded arm "patch me up doc."

"Lie back on this gurney," Doctor West instructed as she helped Carrie to remove the bracer and gently manoeuvred her in the right direction "You were very brave today Miss Shepard."

"I killed," Carrie lamented solemnly.

"Yes-you did," Hannah Chambers acknowledged as she entered the conversation "But you killed to protect the innocent-just like any soldier would have done."

"I suppose I can live with it then," Carrie agreed as she felt the doctor remove her right gauntlet and begin cutting away the right sleeve of her undersuit.

Shortly after that Carrie felt a soft gauze pad pressed firmly over each side of the holes that had gone right through her arm.

"I'm gonna a give you a light sedative sweetie," Doctor West told Carrie as she brought up the medical features on her omni tool "I have to clean your wound before I apply the medi gel and given the nature of the wound I don't think you want to be awake for that."

"Thank's doc, but a word to the wise-it seems that sedatives don't work so well on me."

"I'll just have to have an extra dose ready then," Doctor West decided as she injected the sedative into Carrie's arm a short distance above her bit wound.

Carrie felt warmth flow through her body as the sedative took effect and she drifted into a dreamless sleep.

 **ssssssss**

When Carrie woke she was lying in a hospital bed wearing a hospital gown and her wounded arm was bandaged, turning her head to the right she saw Professor David Chambers, Doctor Hannah Chambers and Maria Wills sitting by her bedside.

Little Kelly Chambers was sitting on her Father's lap until she saw that Carrie was awake, after that she was on top of the older girl hugging her tightly.

"Hey Kelly," Carrie greeted the kid as she hugged her back with her good arm.

"I was so scared when I heard you fought the bad men," Little Kelly told Carrie "did they hurt you?"

"Yeah-they did," Carrie replied "But I'll be better in no time."

"A part of me wants to scold you for taking such a risk," David Chambers told Carrie "another part wants to ask what the hell you were thinking but I find myself forced to admit that you helped save a lot of lives today and that telling you off for that just wouldn't be right."

"But I killed again," Carrie noted sadly.

"To protect this colony and all of it's people-you're a hero Carrie," Hannah reminded Carrie "and when you killed the first time you were only doing what anybody would have done in your shoes."

"Really? Anybody would have slaughtered those people?"

"Carrie," Professor Chambers corrected the girl "people have compared what you did that night to school shootings or school bombings but it isn't the same thing."

"Isn't it Professor?" Carrie asked as she hung her head in shame.

"Call me David," the Professor-no David-insisted "And no-it isn't. School shootings and school bombings are planned and premeditated-murder in the truest sense of the word. What you did was in reality no different to an ordinary person losing their temper with some asshole and beating the crap out of him."

"Except when I beat the crap out of somebody with my mind the consequences are a lot more dire," Carrie noted, a haunted look in her eyes "releasing my anger is dangerous."

"No Carrie, it isn't," Maria told the younger biotic "you didn't snap that night because you chose to release your anger but because you'd been forced to bottle it up for too long-and sooner or later something had to give."

Carrie only nodded sadly in response.

"But you don't seem to be bottling it up quite as much now," Maria continued "It's good to vent once in a while-what you need is a healthy outlet for your anger."

"Kicking that dead varren sure felt good," Carrie admitted as she smiled sadly "the fact that it had just chewed on my arm probably had something to do with that."

"So aside from the Blood Pack how are you liking this trip?" Maria asked.

"I've decided that I like being Carrie Shepard," Carrie replied with a ghost of a smile.

A moment later a nurse walked in and whispered something to David-he nodded before turning to Carrie.

"Excuse me for a moment," he told the cute biotic girl "the nurse here wants to discuss something with me."

 **sssssss**

"What did you want to talk to me about?" David Chambers asked the nurse who had just spoken to him inside.

"Doctor West just finished Carrie's blood work," the nurse told him "she has the genetic markers for natural biotics-her surname isn't really Shepard is it?"

Chambers had only just started the tests to analyse how Carrie's powers worked and hadn't had the time to process her blood samples yet.

"It didn't used to be," David admitted "I'm sure you've guessed what her original surname is-can I trust you to respect patient confidentiality?"

"Yes," the nurse confirmed "you can trust Doctor West as well-but we found more than the extra genetics in her blood-we also found some kind of nanites."

"Do they pose a risk to her health?" Chambers asked in concern.

"No," the nurse assured him "they're inactive-permanently it seems, West believes that they were burned out by extreme use of biotics. But the technology used to create them is a complete unknown-who knows how they might have affected her physically or mentally while they were still active."

"Any idea how they got into her body?"

"Judging from the fact that most of her red and white blood cells had nanites actually inside of them," the nurse paused before continuing "West thinks that her mother was infected with them and they entered Carrie's body while she was still in the womb."

 **ssssss**

Jack Harper looked up at the operative who had just brought him the object on his desk.

A blood smeared pink bracer with two holes in it that apparently were caused by the fangs of a varren.

"And what am I going to do with this?"

"That's Carrie White's blood on that bracer sir," the operative informed him.

"I see," Harper smiled as he caught on "well done."

 **ssssss**

Salamul had never been so angry in his life.

The raid on that human colony was supposed to be a simple smash and grab, but now because that human girl with the insanely powerful biotics had interfered it had all gone south.

And eighty percent of his vorcha were dead along with his two favoured underlings and all of his varren.

He had heard on of the other defenders call her by name, a name he would never forget or stop hating.

Shepard.

 _This isn't over Shepard,_ Salamul vowed _one day I'll have my revenge for this humiliation._

 __ **ssssss**

 **Episode Closing Theme: 'Let it Go' by James Bay (AN: this is not the one from Frozen)**


	6. Episode 6: Taken

**The Good Shepherd**

 **Episode 6: Taken**

 **sssss**

 _It can be easy to forget, but mass effect fields on their own are not able to attract or repulse objects, their sole ability it to alter the mass, gravity and inertia of an object within their area of influence and in some cases distort the flow of time._

 _Only when an electromagnetic field is added to the mix does a mass effect field become capable of generating physical force-an electromagnetic field combined with a mass lowering field will repel nearby objects as in kinetic barriers-while an electromagnetic field combined with a mass raising field will attract nearby objects as in artificial gravity._

 _Biotics work on this same principle-most biotic abilities would not be possible without it._

From the notes of Professor David Chambers.

 **ssssss**

Mass Effect is owned by Bioware.

Carrie is owned by Stephen King.

The 2013 version of Carrie is owned by Metro Goldwyn Mayer productions and director Kimberly Pierce.

The only things I own are this crossover of the two and any original characters that may be featured.

 **sssssss**

Carrie felt her head aching as she woke up, she was shackled to some kind of examination table in a dimly lit room.

 _What hit me,_ the young biotic wondered _and where am I now._

Last Carrie remembered the power had gone off in the safehouse-the leader of the security detail had been escorting her to the panic room.

And then?

Carrie couldn't remember anything after that-.

But for some reason she felt extremely groggy.

 _Okay-biotics should get me out of these shackles._

But when she flexed with her powers Carrie could feel a force resisting her and her eyes caught the tell tale shimmer of a kinetic barrier surrounding her body.

"Dammit," Carrietta Shepard formerly Carrie White swore, and cursing was something she didn't do very often "Whoever snatched me knew exactly who they were dealing with."

That didn't bode well.

"You're awake," a voice observed from the shadows "now we can begin the tests."

"What-tests?" Carrie asked tentatively.

"Chambers lacks the stomach to do what should be done with a monster like you Carrie _White_ ," the unknown man told her as he walked into view, whereupon Carrie could see that he was wearing some kind of combat hardsuit in white and yellow "But everyone here knows that you are far too dangerous to live-however-you have something that humanity needs and we have the means to take it from you."

"David Chambers will come looking for me," Carrie told the unknown and likely insane man.

His only response was a wave of his hand in dismissal followed by a declaration that made the young biotic's heart sink.

"He won't find you unless he feels like searching the vacuum of space for your corpse, we're not on Earth anymore. We're on a starship that's already headed for the Charon relay-she's all yours Hansard, let me know when you're done so I can put a bullet in her head."

 **ssssssss**

Sixteen hours earlier.

Carrie sighed heavily as she sat in the comfortable chair facing doctor Hannah Chambers.

"The things my Momma did to me Doc?" Carrie asked "I'm sure you know some of it from researching my case."

"I only know that she was abusive and in the end she tried to kill you," Hannah corrected the young girl "Also, many suspect that this abuse included locking you in a closet due to the fact that the remains of a closet among the wreckage of your childhood home was found to contain various prayer items one would normally find in a shrine along with traces of blood. I won't force you to tell me specifics, but sharing what you feel comfortable with may help you."

"The part about the closet is true," Carrie confirmed "and there were the many times she kicked me out of the house so I'd have to sleep on the street-I'm surprised nobody noticed that one. But then this is Chamberlain we're talking about."

"I take it you had to develop some street smarts to survive then?"

"I learned to go unnoticed as much as I could," Carrie clarified "I didn't have the use of my biotics back then."

"That sounds traumatic," Hannah observed sympathetically "but clearly you have a knack for surviving."

"Yeah, I guess I do," Carrie admitted "The thing that really messed me up was that she wasn't always abusive-there were times that she showed love and affection for me and I lived for those moments. But she wasn't right in the head-and every time she thought she was helping me she ended up hurting me."

"You still love her in spite of the abuse don't you?"

"I do," Carrie confirmed "And that was the hardest part to deal with, I loved her, she loved me-but she still did horrible things to me. As a young child I found this confusing and frustrating and as messed up as it sounds I loved her and hated her at the same time-I didn't know what way to turn."

"And do you have a better perspective on this now?"

"Yeah-I do," Carrie nodded in confirmation "It wasn't her fault-she was mentally ill. Those things she did to me-it wasn't really her, it was the illness."

Carrie chuckled slightly.

"I guess we have mental illness in common now," Carrie sighed in resignation "PTSD's a bitch."

"But you are getting better," Hannah assured her patient "And you're not so much crazy as just traumatised."

"Thing is-I can't recall a time when I didn't have PTSD to some extent," Carrie confided "you say I'm getting better-but I wish I could get better faster than this."

Hannah placed a reassuring hand on Carrie's shoulder as she offered her wisdom to the young girl.

"Give it time-you don't want to rush these things."

 **sssssss**

"Here are the OSD's you requested Professor," Maria informed her employer as she set the aforementioned data storage devices down on the desk in his assigned lab.

"Thank you Maria," the professor told her.

"What are you working on?" Maria asked curiously.

"Analysing one of Carrie's blood samples," Professor David Chambers replied "Finding out about the nanotech in her blood moved that up the priority list somewhat."

"But it's inactive right?" Maria asked in concern.

"You can never be complacent where unknown nanotechnology is involved," Chambers replied "we have no idea how these machines could affect her physically or mentally if they were to become active. Fortunately it seems that they are indeed dormant-that's the good news."

"What's the bad news?" Maria asked, knowing that when something was put that way it meant that there was also bad news coming.

"They only remain inactive when they are in contact with her blood or other tissues," Chambers noted grimly "I extracted a small number of them from her blood sample for study and they almost immediately reactivated and began repairing themselves-I then injected a small amount of those nanites into two rats in the isolation lab with a third left uninfected for a control sample. So far no notable effects-but they do show a slight increase in their aggression levels."

"Hmm," Maria remarked uneasily "If that effect gets more severe over time then an infection of those things could account for Margaret White's behaviour-obviously Carrie's resistant to their effects though, this might have something to do with her apparent rapid healing ability."

"Yes-it's been less than a week and her wounded arm is nearly healed already," Chambers recalled "A wound like that would normally take months to heal."

"Well that explains how she survived getting stabbed," Maria remarked "And how she was resilient enough to survive a century and a half in biotic stasis."

"It makes you wonder just how bad the burn on her shoulder was to actually leave a scar," Chambers theorised "not to mention that cut across her lower back."

"So when are you going to tell her about the nanites?" Maria asked.

"When I have to," Chambers replied solemnly "She's got enough on her plate as it is. There is one last piece of good news however-the blood samples in the lab contain a twenty percent higher concentration of nanites than the one taken by Doctor West at Ferris fields just under a week later. Meaning that her body is gradually breaking them down-within two months they should be out of her system."

"Good," Maria decided "the sooner she's rid of those things the better."

"Definitely," Chambers agreed "Well I need to get going shortly-I have a lecture to give in half an hour."

 **ssssssss**

As Carrie sat patiently she was reading the digital textbook on biotics and Mass Effect theory that Professor Chambers had uploaded to her omni tool.

She was currently reading the section on how biotic stasis fields worked.

 _To understand how biotic stasis works requires one to also know that the passage of time functions on the same physics model as the laws of mass, gravity and inertia-it has been shown that high gravity fields such as the event horizon of a black hole can slow time within their area of influence._

 _The logical conclusion to this is that since mass effect fields can alter mass, gravity and inertia they can also distort the passage of time depending upon how they are manipulated-this is how FTL drives overcome the time dilation effect that results from travelling at close to the speed of light within their area of altered space time (many times faster than the speed of light would be in the rest of the universe)._

 _Biotic stasis takes advantage of this by dilating time within it's area of effect-a millisecond may pass within the stasis field while several minutes pass in the rest of the universe-this temporal distortion creates a rigidity in living creatures that is sometimes mistaken for rigor mortis._

 _When this specialised mass effect field interacts with the electricity in a living nervous system some of it reverts to the form of an ordinary mass effect field, forming itself into a kinetic barrier that follows the outer surface of the life form in question._

 _This barrier is strong enough to protect against most small arms fire-however it is not completely impenetrable-a force equivalent to a direct hit with a mass accelerator cannon is usually sufficient to pierce it._

 _As a result of this somebody who is inside of a stasis field is reasonably well protected-the trade off of this is that this barrier drains the energy of the stasis field, reducing it's duration of effect._

 _Due to this being the case however it has been theorised that a life form close to death with much weaker electric currents flowing through their nervous system will generate a weaker kinetic barrier but the stasis field will hold it's effect over them for longer._

Carrie realised in that instant that the level of biotic power she had summoned to stretch a couple of minutes out to one hundred and fifty six years must have been staggering-to be able to distort time to that degree.

Though it probably helped that she had been close to death at the time.

 _I must have some instinctive grasp of biotics to be able to summon a stasis field of that strength with little to no training-by all rights the strain of summoning that much power should have killed me,_ Carrie thought to herself _the hard part for me is learning to only use the power when I want to._

As for biotic attacks-she only had to see them demonstrated once and she could roughly duplicate the feat.

She had developed a particular liking for the biotic shockwave and she thought she might like to give biotic charge a try some time.

"I see you got in some reading while you were waiting," Maria observed "good-now let's begin your lesson on biotic theory."

"Maria?" Carrie ventured tentatively.

"Yes?" Maria asked.

"This chapter I just read basically says that biotic stasis works by distorting time,"

Carrie told her tutor "somehow I stretched a couple of minutes within my stasis field to a century and a half outside of it with no amp, no implant and little to no training-just how strong are my biotics?"

"At Seventeen you already put most matriarchs to shame," Maria told the young girl, knowing that trying to sugar coat it would only fuel her fears "And the healing ability you appear to possess seems to allow you to push your abilities much further past their normal limits than any other biotic could hope to survive. You're by far the most gifted biotic I have ever met. Had the Blood Pack known that someone as powerful as you was there they would have avoided you like they avoid the Alliance military."

"So much power," Carrie remarked uneasily "And I still don't have full control of it, it scares me sometimes-that I might lose control again. I've seen the consequences of losing control in anger and-I never want that to happen again."

"That's why you're here," Maria assured Carrie "To learn control."

"I literally don't know my own strength," Carrie remarked solemnly "If I'm this strong at seventeen what am I going to be like when I'm in my thirties? And I'm a natural biotic so I'll just keep getting stronger till the day I die. What if I can't control that power?"

"Your biotics are like any other muscle in your body Carrie," Maria assured her pupil "with practise you can learn to control them."

Carrie nodded quietly.

"Tell you what," Maria decided "When this lesson is over how about you and I head down to the practise range and knock over some dummies-you enjoy that right?"

Carrie's face lit up at this prospect.

"We haven't run out yet?"

 **sssssss**

As Professor Chambers stepped up to the podium in the lecture hall within the New York University's Graduate School of Arts and Science he took in the expectant faces of the students he was about to teach.

For it's part the Institute for Transhuman Study was also a campus of NYU operating under the auspices of the Systems Alliance-of course this campus was strictly for research rather than education of students-theoretically.

"Greetings," he greeted them formally "Welcome to the two week discovery program in Mass Effect Theory, you have all completed your bachelor's degrees in engineering and mathematics-this is a small taste of what you will be learning in the coming semester should your enrolments to this institute be accepted."

"Now-no lecture on Mass Effect Theory would be complete without covering the critical component of all mass effect technology-element zero. Can anybody tell me how element zero is formed?"

After a few seconds a hand was raised in the middle rows.

"Yes Mister Adams?"

"Element Zero is formed inside the core of a star that has reached the end of it's life and is about to go supernova-when the star explodes that element zero is spread across the surrounding area of space."

"That is a simplified explanation," Chambers noted "Technically correct but the full explanation is somewhat more complicated. What is generated within the star as it is burning itself out is the energy that will ultimately coalesce into element zero, this energy is radiated through the surrounding space when the star goes nova or supernova and coalesces into element zero when it interacts with a solid object such as a planet or an asteroid or a particle of dust in interstellar space.

When the universe first formed element zero didn't exist, but with the deaths of the first generation of stars element zero began to form-after the first few stars exploded distributing the first solid elements into the universe, the stars that exploded subsequently caused element zero to be formed, some of this when their energy interacted with the dust particles in the nebulae that were formed from these first supernovae.

However most of this Eezo formed on dust particles in interstellar space that had broken free from these nebulae, it's gravity now holds the universe together-back when it's existence was purely theoretical scientists used to refer to it as 'dark matter'.

The percentage that formed within the nebulae however became a part of every star system that is now known to exist, some of it formed into concentrated pockets of eezo that could be mined-the rest is distributed thinly through every part of these star systems-so thinly that only the most sophisticated microscopes can detect it.

Now-the only time element zero gives off energy of any kind is when an electric current is passed through it causing it to glow blue and generate a mass effect field and all energy of other kinds focused upon it will be absorbed rather than reflect unless that energy happens to be visible light in the blue spectrum or ultraviolet light-so what is the method used to detect the presence of element zero?"

After another a few seconds a hand was once again raised.

"Not this time Mr Adams-somebody else."

A minute passed until finally another hand was raised.

"Miss Gillespie, let's hear it."

"Eezo in high enough concentrations can be detected with the naked eye as shiny blue deposits of crystal. In lower concentrations or when it is hidden it is detected by the shadow it casts against a background of matter that does emit or reflect energy sir. Lower concentrations of Eezo on the surface of an object may also be detected by reflecting ultraviolet light off of the object in question."

"Correct Miss Gillespie," Chambers noted with satisfaction "and this is why mining the eezo in interstellar space is not practical or cost efficient, out in interstellar space there isn't a sufficient backdrop of energy emitting particles with which to pick out the shadow of a pocket of element zero. This is also why very few instruments can detect the ambient levels of eezo that are all around us-one atom in every million casts very little in the way of a shadow. However, mining the debris field around a star that recently went supernova is a cost effective if hazardous method of obtaining this vital element."

At that precise moment Chamber's omni tool beeped indicating an incoming message-a red light was flashing in midair above his wrist indicating that it was urgent.

"Excuse me for a moment," Chambers told the assembled students as he opened the message.

 _We need to talk-your young ward may be in danger._

 _Hackett._

 __ **sssssss**

"Okay Carrie," Maria asked her pupil "we've just covered the three branches of biotics, now can you tell me what they were?"

"The three branches of biotics are, firstly: telekinesis," Carrie replied "telekinesis used to be a more general term that referred to all biotic powers, now it refers to far more specific biotic abilities. Abilities such as lifting, pushing, pulling, crushing or throwing objects with a biotic field."

Carrie paused before continuing.

"The second branch of biotics is barriers-that one is pretty self explanatory."

Carrie fidgeted nervously for a second as she thought back to what Maria had explained to her-recalling the lesson so far.

"The third branch of biotics is distortion," Carrie continued "this covers abilities that allow a mass effect field to be created that will distort a pocket of space time to shred an object from within or create a singularity to draw it in-incidentally biotic stasis also falls under this branch of biotics because it works by distorting time."

"Very good," Maria nodded in satisfaction "And how are biotic fields produced?"

"A biotic field is actually a combination of a mass effect field and a biologically generated electromagnetic field, except for stasis apparently, it seems that stasis is a mass effect field only. Biotics are made possible by the presence of nodules of element zero in a person's nervous system, chiefly the brain," Carrie recited "electrical impulses in the nervous system pass an electric current through these nodes causing them to produce mass effect fields combined with biologically generated electromagnetic fields-with proper mental focus a biotic can control these mass effect fields and electromagnetic magnetic fields and use them to affect the world around them."

"What is the purpose of a biotic implant?"

"The purpose of a biotic implant is to raise the ability of most biotics-whose physiology does not include a biotic lobe in their brain-to levels of biotic power sufficient for practical use," Carrie replied, quoting what Maria had explained to her "it does this by using a combination of a mass effect field generator and a powerful electromagnetic coil that is controlled by a neural interface-serving as a cybernetic substitute for the biotic lobe of a natural biotic. This however necessitates regular charging of the implant's power cell."

"Correct once again," Maria noted, obviously pleased "You're quite smart when people actually explain things to you properly."

Carrie blushed at this praise-having people compliment her was still a new concept, although she was getting used to it.

At that moment Maria and Carrie's omni tools both beeped, indicating an incoming message.

They both opened the messages they had received and found that they had received the same one.

 _Meet me in the common room ASAP-it's important._

 _Chambers._

 **ssssss**

As Carrie and Maria walked into the common room they could see that Chambers was already present along with another man-dark skinned with short cropped dark hair and dressed in an Alliance Navy uniform.

"Professor-we got your message," Maria informed her employer "I take it this is important if the military is involved?"

"It is," the military man confirmed-an English accent clearly audible, then turned toward Carrie "Miss White-."

"It's-um-Shepard now sir," Carrie corrected quietly.

"We're still working on making that official," Chambers reminded her.

"My apologies-Miss Shepard, I'm First Lieutenant David Anderson; Alliance Navy," Lieutenant Anderson offered a hand to shake which Carrie did so courteously "My commanding officer Major Hackett has sent me to escort you to a safe house-we have evidence that a serial killer is targeting biotics in the Widow Nebula and the Local Cluster-the most recent victim was an Asari citizen in North Carolina who moved to Earth to find work."

"But how would this killer know about me Lieutenant Anderson?" Carrie asked-her brow furrowing in confusion "As far as any but a handful of people know I died on Prom Night."

"Two of his victims were people whose status as biotics was known only to Alliance High Command," Anderson explained "We're still looking for for the security breach that allowed this nut job to find out about them, this is why the military is investigating and not C-Sec or some other constabulary force. Given that he was able to breach top secret files it is possible that he knows about you."

"I understand," Carrie agreed "Chambers-you can vouch for the Lieutenant?"

"I know him and Hackett personally," Chambers confirmed.

"Okay," Carrie nodded "just let me pack some things and I'll be right with you."

 **sssssss**

As Carrie hastily threw some belongings from her dormitory into a travel satchel, wincing occasionally when her recently injured arm twinged she made sure to only take the bare necessities.

Within five minutes she was packed and ready to go, meeting Anderson in the common room.

A quick walk to a waiting skycar outside and Carrie and her assigned escort were heading for the safehouse.

"After hearing about your recent heroic action at Ferris Fields," Anderson remarked "I find myself forced to admit that in spite of your actions on Prom Night you are still a decent person Miss Shepard."

At the mention of Prom Night Carrie looked down in shame.

"I wondered if you felt any remorse for what you did that night," Anderson continued upon seeing this "Now I can see that you do. When I first heard about your case I'll admit I judged you quite harshly, when I heard about the extenuating circumstances surrounding your case I began to think I might have been wrong-seeing you like this I know for a fact I was wrong."

"Hardly a night goes by that I don't have nightmares about what I did," Carrie admitted quietly "I didn't want them to die, not at first. But it was like when my anger reached a certain point it-fed itself I guess-like something was egging me on. That wasn't the first time I've felt that kind of anger either, thought it was by far the worst-combine that with my powers and-."

"Bad things happen because you are far more than ordinary," Anderson finished "As further proof of your extraordinary nature your wounded arm is already nearly healed after less than a week."

Carrie's brow furrowed in thought at this.

"Before Chambers told me that I heal faster than other people I didn't think it was unusual to heal this fast" she told the lieutenant "I've always healed like this-I thought everybody did."

"For most people a wound like that would take months to heal," Anderson informed the young biotic "in any case I can grudgingly admit that you deserve a second chance-I'm not sure I agree with Hackett's plans for you though."

"His plans for me?" Carrie asked.

"Your choice of course," Anderson clarified "beyond that it's not my place to tell, you'll have to ask him. But let's just say I have my doubts about your mental stability-I'm hoping that you'll prove me wrong."

"I don't blame you for doubting me," Carrie agreed "my actions haven't exactly inspired confidence in my sanity, right up until Prom I've had that happen occasionally-when my anger reaches a certain point I feel like I'm going to lose myself in it. Prom Night was the first time I actually did lose myself in the rage-but I haven't felt like that since for some reason-something changed that night."

"Maybe you finally got the chance to vent all of that built up anger?" Anderson suggested.

"Well whatever was causing that I'm relieved to see it go," Carrie admitted reluctantly "I just hope that it's gone for good-and I wish those people didn't have to die."

 **ssssssss**

When Anderson dropped Carrie off at the safehouse a group of four alliance marines were waiting-he soon revealed that he was in command of them and they would be protecting her until this serial killer could be caught.

Carrie was rather overwhelmed that the Alliance would be using this much manpower to keep her safe.

After she was settled in Carrie opened the database in her omni tool-there was something that had been bugging her and she knew that it wouldn't stop bugging her until she satisfied her curiosity.

 **ssssssss**

As Professor Chambers entered the isolation lab where his three test rodents were being kept he saw one of the other researchers for the L3 project was already present.

Specifically their cyberneticist Doctor Rochelle Tate.

Chambers' own qualifications were in biology and Mass Effect theory.

"I checked on your test animals a few minutes ago Professor," Tate reported "the two infected rats show a further seven percent increase in their aggression levels-and they appear to be reacting to stimulus that isn't present. Almost like the nanites have hallucinogenic properties."

"So they would definitely explain Margaret's insanity then," Chambers concluded "but did they affect Carrie at all when they were active?"

 **ssssssss**

As Carrie read the article she had sought out on the extranet some things she had become aware of began to make more sense.

She had skimmed through most of the first part of it-all of that was stuff she already knew.

But now she had come to the part of the article that held the answers she was seeking.

 _The initial finding of the White Commission placed most of the blame for the tragedy on the night of Black Prom squarely on the shoulders of Carrie herself, however a classmate of Carrie's by the name of Susan Snell refused to let the matter drop._

 _Miss Snell wrote Emails to various media outlets, collated facts surrounding Miss White's case that might serve to clear her name, wrote a book about her experiences on Prom Night and started an online petition against bullying in our schools and our society that came to be referred to as the 'Snell Petition'._

 _Initially she didn't have a lot of support other than her old gym teacher Rita Desjarden and a few other teachers from Ewen high, but in time more people were won over to her cause._

 _At the age of twenty two Susan Snell was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer-the opinion of her oncologist at the time was that she only had a maximum of two months to live, but she fought the disease for six years-long enough to make sure that Carrie White was cleared._

 _The biggest break in the case was due to the unexpected confessions of the surviving members of Christine Hargenson's clique, the first to confess after an eleven year silence was Jessica Upshaw, this opened the floodgates for the others and one by one they confessed to the abuse that had ultimately pushed Carrie White over the edge._

 _Overcome with remorse they each confessed to the horrors they had inflicted upon an innocent girl for twelve long years, only some of the more serious incidents could be confirmed-but this led to Carrie White being cleared of all charges posthumously due to severe mental trauma._

Carrie was somewhat taken aback as she read this.

 _So Sue really was trying to make amends,_ Carrie realised _Thanks Sue-I owe you one._

It seemed all of them had a conscience in the end.

Carrie continued to read.

 _After their confessions numerous charges were files against the surviving members of Christine Hargenson's clique, these charges ranged from petty theft and vandalism of Miss White's property all the way up to no less than six counts of attempted murder committed against Miss White._

 _However-in the end it was ruled that there was not enough evidence to convict._

 _Regardless of this however people were no longer ignoring the social evil that is bullying, zero tolerance policies were introduced to schools across the board and intensive education programs were instituted to counter ingrained bullying attitudes._

 _As a result of this however Chamberlain gained an unsavoury reputation as the bigotry capital of the world-tourism revenue and business investment in Chamberlain dried up virtually overnight following Miss White being cleared and people began moving away in droves as they had immediately following Black Prom-there was an understanding that if you were from Chamberlain then you didn't talk about it._

 _For a long time Chamberlain became a ghost town, but after a time a new form of tourism drew people back there, the desire to learn more about this chapter of humanity's history._

 _For those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it._

 _A replica to satisfy the curiosity of tourists was built on the former site of the original White Bungalow and a memorial site where Ewen High once stood-the town of New Chamberlain sprung up around them._

 _For her part Susan Snell died peacefully in her bed three months after Carrie was cleared with her parents and her daughter Carolyn by her side._

 _Miss Snell's parents were grief stricken at their daughter dying so young however and they were wealthy enough to have their daughter's body cryogenically preserved in the hopes that one day the medical techniques to give her a second chance at life could be discovered._

This bit of reading had brought things into focus for Carrie-it seemed that Sue at least was a decent person, and the other survivors of Chris' posse had changed for the better in the end too.

 _In the end they finally understood,_ Carrie thought wistfully _In any case Sue risked a lot and gave up a lot for my sake and I'm damn well going to make sure it wasn't for nothing._

 **ssssssss**

As Major Steven Hackett left the interrogation room after interviewing the tenth witness about the 'Brainstorm Killer' as they were calling this biotic obsessed psychopath he immediately checked in on Lieutenant Anderson to make sure that Miss White was safe.

Once he was sure that nobody had gotten to the young girl who was currently one of the Alliance's most valuable assets he then contacted another of his subordinates, Sargent Orlando Kyle.

"What do you have for me Sargent Kyle?" the Major asked.

"Only hazy details I'm afraid Sir," Kyle replied in his unmistakeable deep, smooth voice "But someone did see a suspicious man standing outside Code Red half an hour before Kalana Sorani was snatched."

"Did they describe him?"

"Tall, human, jaw length dark hair, solid looking but not excessively bulky," the Sargent supplied "He was wearing olive green cargos and a dark blue tee shirt, according to the person I spoke to he seemed to be acting strangely."

"Strangely how Sargent?"

"Well Sir, this woman said it seemed like he was casing the nightclub for some reason," Kyle recalled "I've got every word she told me recorded for evidence Major-she also told me that he, quote: 'gave her the creeps'."

"Get me everything you can on this man Sargent," Hackett ordered "the security recordings would be a good place to start-if we can get a clear shot of him then we can run facial recognition."

"I'll get on it straight away Sir," Kyle promised "Kyle out."

 _About time,_ Hackett thought in weary hope _we might actually catch this bastard-normally we'd leave this to the police except that this lunatic managed to hack a top secret military database._

 **sssssss**

As Professor chambers left the isolation labs and returned to his own lab at the institute he found Maria hunched over the lab bench holding her head with a pained expression on her face.

"Migraine again?" he asked at her nod he continued as he gently grasped her arm and began leading her towards the infirmary "come on-let's get your pain relief medication."

"Sure," Maria agreed "just let me grab the PDA I was working with."

However-as Maria lifted the tablet a short way off of the bench it abruptly slipped out of her grasp, falling to the floor with a loud clatter.

Maria bent over slightly, supporting her right arm with her left.

"What's the matter?" Chambers asked in concern.

"My-arm," Maria replied in shock "It's not working right-I'm-I can't feel it. And my chest feels heavy for some reason."

 _This is not good,_ Chambers thought in alarm _paralysis is one of the more severe side effects of the L2s and it sounds like it's starting to affect her breathing._

"It's going to be all right Maria," Chambers promised as he tried to reassure her "we're already on the right track-the results of Carrie's medical scans have already pointed us in the right direction, we'll find the answer in time."

"I wish I shared your confidence," Maria responded desperately as she prayed for an end to the L2 nightmare.

 **ssssss**

As Carrie was getting ready for bed, having just changed into her nightie and taken off her omni tool, depositing in on her bedside table she heard the chime of her room's doorbell.

Walking up to the door she touched the holographic control to open it, coming face to face with her assigned protector Lieutenant David Anderson as the door opened.

"Anderson," Carrie greeted the military man politely "Come to check up on me? Don't worry-I'm not going to go psycho or anything."

"Glad to hear it," Anderson replied as his face took on a thoughtful look "Hmm-maybe Hackett was onto something."

"Another reference to this Hackett's plans for me," Carrie noted "Are you going to tell me what those plans are?"

At the look Anderson gave her Carrie sighed in resignation.

"I have to ask him that question don't I?" Carrie remembered "Well I hope I get to meet the man soon then."

"After we catch this killer," Anderson promised "he was going to visit the institute and introduce himself to you when this came up."

"Looking forward to-."

At that moment all of the lights went out.

 **ssssssss**

When the lights went out and all of the power systems shut off both Anderson and Carrie Shepard knew straight away that something was not right.

"Is it the killer? Carrie asked "He knows how to hack right? He cracked a military database, shutting down the power to this building should be nothing to him."

"Let's not assume anything Miss Shepard," Anderson suggested "all we know is that things aren't as they should be."

Carrie nodded in response.

"All troops please respond," Anderson spoke into his headset implant "This is Lieutenant Anderson, does anybody know our situation?"

"This is Private Nelson Sir," Came the first reply "nothing out of place at the main entrance-except for the lights being off."

"Boyle here, I see someone by the main power box Sir," said a female voice "I'm moving to-."

There was a gunshot and then static.

"Boyle, do you copy? Sargent Boyle?" After a few more tries Anderson realised that he wasn't going to raise the Sargent "nothing, and that sounded like a sniper rifle-can you get this door open?"

"Saito here Sir," crackled another reply "Rear entrance is secure."

"Not a problem Sir," Carrie assured Anderson in reply to his question as she extended a hand and concentrated.

Almost immediately the doors opened, forced open by Carrie's biotic field.

"All troops be advised that our intruder is not acting alone," Anderson told the remaining three members of his squad over his headset "He has a sniper backing him up."

"Birmingham here, I read you Lieutenant," reported another of the marines, this one positioned on the roof "I have eyes on our intruder, can't see his backup though-he must be using a tactical cloak. Nelson-he's headed your way, Sir I can snipe the intruder if you-."

Another gunshot and more static-followed by Anderson trying futilely to raise Second Lieutenant Birmingham.

"Two soldiers down already but at least you follow instructions well Miss Shepard," Anderson noted grimly as he led the way out of the room "Follow me and stay close."

"Right with you Anderson," Carrie told the Lieutenant as she complied "Where too?"

"The panic room is downstairs, I'll secure you in there while we deal with the situation. It looks like this terrorist isn't acting alone."

"Right," Carrie agreed.

"Asset is with me," Anderson informed the remaining two soldiers in his squad over his headset "I'm escorting her to the panic room, Nelson, Saito lock this place down. Saito: radio for backup. It would seem that our enemy's sniper is also an infiltrator-stay sharp."

"Yes Sir," came the reply of both soldiers.

As the soldier and the young biotic were exiting the elevator on the ground floor they heard a scream coming from the main entrance nearby, followed by a thump and the unmistakeable stink of burned flesh.

For Carrie that smell brought back some unpleasant memories-no doubt for Anderson as well.

"What was that?" Carrie wondered quietly.

"I'll have a look," Anderson decided as he approached the entrance "stay back a ways in case it's a trap."

"You mean so I don't have to see whatever horror is waiting?" Carrie asked, at Anderson's answering sigh she continued "I'm afraid you're a little bit late to be shielding me from those things."

As they approached the entrance it became obvious where the scream had come from.

One of the marines assigned to protect Carrie was lying motionless on the floor-his armour showed no visible damage aside from the smoke seeping from every joint, but that alone was enough proof that the inside of the suit was destroyed.

After all, military hardsuits were designed to double as EVA suits for hard vacuum, for smoke to leak out meant that all of the seals must have been severely damaged.

"Oh god, Nelson. How the-," Neither Carrie nor Anderson needed to see inside the suit to know that what was inside was not a pretty sight.

"Someone hacked his hardsuit's on board computer," Anderson explained, anger evident in his voice "Cooked him in his own armour."

"Whoever did this must know his way around tech," Carrie reasoned as she tried to swallow her revulsion at the images her mind was conjuring up "That's military grade hardware."

"This man may be ex military," Anderson suggested "If so he's not to be trifled with."

"Yeah, I hear-," Carrie stopped whispering as she felt something intruding upon the edges of her consciousness.

"What is it?" Anderson asked.

Carrie's brows furrowed as she tried to figure out what this feeling was.

"I'm getting this strange prickling sensation in the back of my-."

Before she could say any more a powerful biotic shockwave ploughed into both her and Anderson and slammed them into the wall beside the entrance.

As Carrie hit the floor she could feel her head spinning from the concussion of having slammed into the wall, a glance at Anderson as she struggled futilely to get back up told her that he was in a similar situation.

Before Carrie could ponder this further she heard booted feet approaching from in front, looking in that direction she caught sight of a tall man with jaw length dark hair-but her vision was too fuzzy to make out anything else and she had no time for further observation as a hard boot slammed into her head sending her into darkness.

 **ssssssss**

As Chambers watched Maria carefully while the doctor carefully scanned her with a medical grade omni tool he noticed that she seemed to be regaining some use of her arm and she was breathing normally again.

"Getting the use of your arm back?" he asked gently.

"Yes I'm-regaining some sensation," Maria informed him as she then shifted her glance toward the doctor examining her "what's the prognosis?"

"Your symptoms have definitely gotten worse," Doctor Henry Lan informed the nineteen year old biotic, sighing heavily as he delivered the unfortunate bad news "According to this scan your condition is degenerative-if your L2 implant isn't swapped out for something safer soon I'm afraid that it's terminal."

"But I can still be saved if a safer implant can be developed in time," Maria reasoned "How long do I have?"

"We don't know-and the procedure to swap out your implant carries great risk," Doctor Lan told her "It depends upon so many factors but for the foreseeable future it would be best if you didn't use your biotics-using them with your current implant will accelerate the degeneration."

"We'll find the answer Maria," Chambers promised "we're already on the right track-Alliance Research and Development on Arcturus station already have to results of Carrie's medical scans, they'll soon have the results of her genetic tests as well. From what they've seen so far they tell me that creating something safer than the L2 is quite feasible, they're already drawing up the initial blueprints for a prototype."

A moment later Chambers' omni tool beeped, indicating an incoming message.

"What is it?" Maria asked blearily, flexing her right hand as the sensation came back.

"The institute database was hacked an hour ago," Chambers told her "According to this only one file was accessed though-Carrie's file."

"Somebody outside of the institute and Alliance high command knows that she's alive," Maria noted in alarm "Aside from Emily Wong I mean."

"Yeah and, there's more," Chambers continued "Carrie's safehouse was attacked, all but two of the soldiers guarding her were killed and Carrie has been abducted."

 **ssssssss**

As Anderson sat while an Alliance medic treated his injuries he looked up to see Major Hackett approaching.

"I'm sorry sir-I lost her," Anderson reported solemnly.

"It wasn't your fault Anderson," Hackett assured the Lieutenant "You did everything that you could but you were completely unprepared for what the enemy had at their disposal. We all thought we were dealing with a lone serial killer, we didn't realise that he had allies."

"Three marines are dead on my watch," Anderson reported, a hard self reproving glint in his eye "I was supposed to keep them safe."

"We can't worry about that right now," Hackett told Anderson "Our main priority is tracking these terrorists down and getting Carrie back."

"Do we have any leads Sir?"

"Fortunately Sargent Kyle was able to dig something up," Hackett informed the lieutenant as he placed a datapad on the gurney next to Anderson "A suspicious man was spotted outside Code Red just half an hour before Kalana Sorani was abducted."

"The Asari citizen who disappeared and later turned up dead," Anderson recalled.

"Yes, we believe the man in this file was the one who took her," Hackett explained "Facial recognition from the surveillance footage gave us a ninety percent match."

Nodding in understanding Anderson picked up the pad and accessed the file on it, it showed a picture of a human male with jaw length dark hair, but it was the name that caught Anderson's attention.

"Donald Hargenson," Anderson noted in mild surprise "Any relation to Christine Hargenson?"

"We believe so," Hackett confirmed "After the death of his daughter John Hargenson remarried and had another child-a son. We believe that this man is a descendant of that son."

"It makes sense," Anderson acknowledged as he continued reading "He's a biotic? Hmm, part of the first group to be fitted with the L2 implants-in total he spent three years on Jump Zero, straight after being released from there he enlisted and served as a Sentinel class biotic in the alliance Navy for three years before being placed on indefinite leave for mental health reasons. Two Years later he resigned once his five year tour was up and he hasn't been seen since."

"Until now," Hackett explained "We did some checking up and it seems that he owns a freighter called the _Void Carriage_. Some further digging placed that ship in port at every one of the places that our victims were abducted from at the time they were abducted-this seems to be our best shot."

"Do we know where this ship is now sir?"

"We do," Hackett confirmed "But as you know we have limited time to find Miss Shepard-forty eight hours at most, after that we won't find her alive."

"Understood Sir."

 **ssssss**

Carrie struggled futilely against her bonds as Doctor Hansard affixed a set of electrodes to her skin.

"Wh-what are those for?" Carrie asked nervously.

"Let's just say that pain breaks down mental barriers where biotics are concerned," Hansard explained as he forced some kind of helmet onto her head.

"You're not worried about what might happen if I unleash my full power?" Carrie asked, a sinister undertone creeping into her voice as she did.

 _This is one person I wouldn't feel bad about going Black Prom on,_ Carrie thought darkly _sick bastard._

Hansard scoffed at the suggestion.

"I assure you our kinetic barrier is quite capable of containing you."

A moment later he nodded in the direction of an assistant who touched a control on his console and Carrie cried out in agony as a high voltage electric current was passed through her.

 **ssssss**

As Major Hackett, Lieutenant Anderson, Sargent Kyle and Private Saito were performing maintenance on their gear as quickly as they could in preparation for the rescue mission there was a banging on the door of the armoury.

"I'll get it," Hackett told his men as he finished reassembling his assault rifle and attached it to the appropriate hard point on his armour.

As he opened the door Professor chambers was standing outside with a young Private looking nervous.

"Sorry Sir," the rookie marine apologised awkwardly "he has full authorisation to be here being a part of the L3 project and-."

"It's fine," Hackett assured the young man as he then turned toward Chambers "I take it you heard."

"I heard," Chambers confirmed.

"I'm surprised Maria isn't here with you."

"She's in hospital, her symptoms have gotten worse."

"I see," Hackett nodded simply "Don't worry-we'll get Miss Shepard back, we already have a good idea who took her and what ship they have her on. With luck we'll get there before it takes off-if not we have an Alliance shuttle made available to us."

 **ssssss**

As Carrie slumped in her bonds after the current shut off, wishing for oblivion Doctor Hansard looked over the readings from his instruments.

Pissed off beyond reason she lashed out with her biotics as she attempted to paint the bulkheads with the sick bastard.

To no avail of course-but the lights dimmed for a moment.

"That taxed our power systems heavily for a moment Doctor," Hansard's assistant reported "We might want to get Hargenson back in here in case she breaks free."

"That definitely got a response from her biotic lobe," he observed "Hargenson may be in charge of this cell but his judgement is more than questionable where this girl is concerned-hmm, the biotic response wasn't for long enough to get definitive readings. I'll try shocking her for a little longer this time."

 _Getting your kicks from this you twisted piece of shit?_ Carrie wondered silently _Just you wait till I break free-you won't be so smug then._

And then Carrie wasn't able to think of much else as she was shocked for slightly longer this time.

When this later burst of torture ended Carrie sagged in her restraints momentarily as the morally bankrupt researcher looked over the readings.

Then she lashed out with biotic attack after biotic attack-all of them were contained by the kinetic barrier unfortunately.

But as a small consolation the temperature warning on that console had become rather strident.

"Doctor-she's going to bleed the system dry," Hansard's assistant reported "This ship's power output isn't enough to contain her-it was barely enough to contain that Asari."

"She'll run out of power before the ship does," Hansard reassured his assistant.

Examining the readings for a moment he continued.

"The amygdala definitely plays a role in regulating activity in her biotic lobe, clearly emotion is the key to directing her powers."

"Well Duh," Carrie sneered "I could have told you that, why do you think that crap on Prom Night caused me to lose control?"

"So you think I should pity you because they said some mean things to you?" Neilson asked calmly "You think that justifies murder?"

"Not at all," Carrie denied "but at least I'm sorry for what I did, that's more than we can say for you. Arguably I deserve this-but what about your other victims?"

"They were necessary sacrifices for the good of humanity," Hansard rationalised, an edge creeping into his voice.

"Keep telling yourself that and maybe you'll believe it," Carrie challenged-a crazy idea to escape had occurred to her and for it to work she'd need all the rage she could muster "At least I don't try to deny that what I did was wrong."

"I'm _nothing_ like you," Hansard snarled in clear denial.

"No, you're not," Carrie agreed "You're a coward who tries to tell himself that it's for the greater good. Murdering innocent people is never for the greater good you sick fuck-if I'm a monster then you're a worse one."

"I'm thinking double the amperage this time," Hansard stated coldly as he pushed his assistant aside and operated the controls to deliver the shock himself this time, ignoring the other man's protests.

Carrie cried out in agony as another shock was delivered at a higher voltage this time.

Carrie could only hope that her healing ability would let her weather the abuse until the pain woke up the power she needed.

She was screaming in pain but a small part of her was gloating as she felt that power begin to free itself from it's restraints and all of the lights dimmed almost to darkness.

A moment later the power went out completely.

 **ssssss**

As the kinetic barrier fizzled out Carrie realised that whatever force was holding her shackles closed seemed to have disappeared too, no biotics were needed.

She just flexed her muscles and the shackles on her wrists popped open.

Bringing both hands to bear she forced open the shackle around her throat, then shrugged out of the ones on her ankles as well.

Looking down Carrie grimaced as she noticed that she was still wearing the nightdress she had been abducted in.

 _Not the best attire to be fighting in,_ Carrie thought to herself as she regarded her state of dress.

Looking up in the dim emergency lighting she saw Hansard reaching under his desk and coming out with a pistol so she knocked him into the bulkhead behind with a flick of her wrist.

As he dropped to the deck she could see that he was dead, his head resting at a grotesque angle, pushing down her momentary guilt and her revulsion at the trickle of blood from the corner of the dead man's mouth Carrie quickly relieved him of his pistol and omni tool.

As Hansard's assistant moved toward her Carrie trained the gun on him.

"Don't move," the young biotic snarled.

"Not moving Ma'am," the research assistant promised as he raised both his hands in a gesture of surrender.

"That storage locked over by the wall-," Carrie indicated the locker with a flick of her eyes in that direction "Move over to it."

The assistant complied, clearly not wanting to get shot.

"Do you know the code to unlock it?"

He nodded.

"Good-unlock it and open the door."

He did so.

"Get inside."

"But-."

"Do it," Carrie instructed, a hard edge to her voice.

He finally relented and got inside the locker.

"One last thing," Carrie added "How do I find the bridge?"

The research assistant said nothing, just glaring balefully at her.

"I asked you a question," Carrie demanded as she aimed the pistol right between his eyes.

"Go out of this room turn right and down the hall, the bridge is at the end," the assistant stuttered in terror.

"Thanks," Carrie responded with false cheer as she shut the door on him.

Unlocking a locker like that required knowledge of the electronic access code but locking it again afterward was as simple as shutting it and pressing the red button.

 **sssssss**

As Carrie biotically forced the doors open and carefully made her way to the bridge she kept an eye out for any security on board the ship.

She was able to reach the end of the hallway without incident-this no doubt had to do with the fact that the corridor was fairly short and therefore it didn't take her long to reach the end of it.

Another quick application of biotics secured entry to the bridge-she entered, gun at the ready.

"Nobody move unless I say so," Carrie shouted, trying to act braver than she felt "Now tell your crew of grease monkeys to get the power back up and then you're taking me back to Earth. If anybody has a problem with that they can discuss it with my pistol and my biotics."

Most of the bridge crew didn't seem to be willing to complain about Carrie's wishes, but the crazy man who had been in the lab when Carrie woke up was present and seemed only too happy to try his luck.

He was quite easy to pick out from the rest of the bridge crew-that white and yellow hardsuit really stood out from the others who weren't wearing armour or apparently carrying any weapons.

And it seemed that this luck included biotics as he let fly with a powerful biotic shockwave that Carrie just managed to avoid, warned by that strange prickling sensation in the back of her skull.

So that was what the prickling meant.

The rest of the bridge crew-only four people in total, vacated the bridge in a panicked exodus, not wanting to get in the way of a couple of high level biotics fighting one another.

 **ssssss**

Anderson held onto his hand grip, occasionally glancing over at his commanding officer as Shuttle Pilot Sanchez piloted the small craft with practised skill.

"Sensors just picked up a heat signature a few hundred klicks from the Charon relay Major," Pilot Sanchez reported "However I'm reading only emergency power as if all other systems are powered down."

"Whoever these people are they seem to have gotten more than they bargained for," Hackett remarked "Take us in for a closer look."

 **sssss**

Carrie ducked just in time to avoid being decapitated as the other biotic, whoever he was, tore a console loose with his mind and flung it at her-as a chair came sailing after it she managed to catch the second object and send it straight back at him.

Raising her pistol to capitalise by unloading on him Carrie found that this plan died stillborn as her foe quickly flung some kind of metal disk in her direction and then touched a control on his omni tool.

Almost immediately the pistol locked up and the unmistakeable beeping of an overheat warning sounded.

 _Shit, that must have been some kind of EMP mine or something,_ Carrie thought in alarm as she quickly ducked out of the small bridge and into the corridor leading to it.

"Worthless bitch, you ruined my life you know that?" the unknown biotic snarled as he came after her.

"Me? What did I do to you?" Carrie demanded "I don't recall seeing _you_ at prom."

"It's because of what you did that night that so many people treat biotics like crap," he told her flatly "And I had it even worse-Maybe the fact that my name is Donald _Hargenson_ will tell you why. Even my fellow biotics wouldn't accept me because of that."

Carrie felt a stab of guilt at this.

 _His life has been a lot like mine,_ Carrie realised _And I played a role in that._

"I'm so sorry," Carrie apologised, her expression one of utter shame.

"Save it," Hargenson snarled as he drew a shotgun from behind his back.

He never had the chance to use it.

In a desperation move Carrie decided in a split second that now was the best time to try a biotic charge-the top of her head connected with his abdomen at four hundred miles an hour.

Her barrier-taught to her by Maria and still possible even without a hardsuit-protected her from the impact as Hargenson was borne back into the bridge by the force of her charge-the only thing protecting him from being cut in half by the impact being his own barrier as he was slammed into the main console, utterly destroying it.

Donald Hargenson dropped to his knees, unable to fight any more.

"For what it's worth," Carrie told him "I am sorry that you had to suffer."

"Bite me," He snapped in helpless anger.

It was at about this time that Carrie noticed the whistle of escaping air coming from behind the beaten man as an alarm and a recorded message began blaring throughout the ship.

" _Warning-hull breach on the bridge-life support failing-emergency bulkheads inoperable. Please proceed to the shuttle bay."_

Carrie figured odds were pretty good that she didn't want to ride on these guys terms, and hijacking their shuttle was out of the question as she didn't know how to fly it and it would likely be gone as soon as they saw her coming-but then she remembered.

 _Combat hardsuits are designed to double as EVA suits-and Hargenson was wearing one, there must be an armoury on this ship._

Asking Hargenson where the armoury was was out of the question as he'd already staggered down the hall in retreat and he probably wouldn't have told her anyway.

But who could she ask?

 _Oh yeah-that guy,_ Carrie realised _and it wouldn't be right to just let him die_.

As she headed back to the lab, fighting the wind as she went.

Walking in she biotically tore open the locker that she had locked Hansard's research assistant in and then lifted him and held him suspended in the air.

"If you want to live you need to evacuate this ship," Carrie told him in no uncertain terms "tell me where the armoury is and I'll let you go so you can do that-given that you're engaging in these illegal experiments I'm sure you have one."

"Promise to let me go?" he asked.

Carrie nodded.

"Across the hall," he told her.

"Thanks," Carrie told him as she set him back on his feet and headed in the direction he had told her "you should probably haul ass."

As Carrie entered the makeshift armoury in what had clearly once been sleeping quarters her eyes settled on the four hardsuits up the back.

 _White and yellow. Why are they all white and yellow?_

 _Now is there one in my size, please let there be one in my size-it's getting difficult to breathe._

 _This one? No, what about-? No. This one is my size._

Moving quickly Carrie stripped off her nightdress and slipped into the undersuit, quickly securing the outer armour immediately after.

By the time she grabbed her helmet she could barely breathe.

 __ **sssssss**

As Sanchez piloted the shuttle toward the apparently disabled freighter his attention became momentarily fixed upon his sensor board.

"Major-I'm reading atmosphere venting from the bridge of the vessel," he reported as his eyes narrowed in concern "I'd guess some kind of fire fight took place on board."

"They didn't know who they were dealing with," Hackett remarked "we'd better get on board fast if we want to find her alive."

"Sir, the side of the cargo bay just opened up, I'm reading a single shuttle exiting and heading for the mass relay," Sanchez reported "Apparently they've converted the cargo bay into a shuttle bay."

"Who the hell are these people?" Hackett asked rhetorically "Chances are Miss Shepard-I understand she goes by Shepard now-is still on board, unless her captors dragged her along with them."

"They'd have a hard time dragging Carrie Wh-sorry Shepard away Sir," Anderson remarked.

"Indeed," Hackett agreed "Notify Arcturus station to have the Fifth Fleet on standby just to be safe-meanwhile we'll board the freighter and hope that Carrietta is still alive."

 **ssssss**

As Hackett boarded the freighter he was glad for the fact that the hardsuits worn by him and his squad doubled as EVA suits-and that everybody had their helmets on.

"It doesn't look good Sir," Sargent Kyle remarked "there's almost no atmosphere left on this ship."

"Let's not give up yet," Hackett ordered as he led his squad out of the airlock, the steady thump of the magnetic boots that were substituting for the failing artificial gravity vibrating through the deck beneath them.

They found no sign of her in the heavily modified cargo bay, and still no sign as they entered the passageway to the bridge.

They checked in what obviously used to be sleeping quarters but was now some kind of makeshift lab.

They found a corpse in that room slumped against the bulkhead by the door, male and wearing a lab coat-his neck clearly broken.

Definitely not Carrie.

"Don't give up yet," Hackett ordered "Let's try the other sleeping quarters."

As they were coming out into the hallway however a figure about Carrie's size, female and dressed in a full hardsuit in white and yellow of all colours was coming out to meet them, using handholds along the walls to pull herself along, apparently not having figured out how to activate the mag boots yet.

Hackett switched his comm to an open frequency, tapping the side of his helmet to indicate that she should activate her own comm, nodding her understanding the young woman reached up and pressed a button on her omni tool, fumbling for a minute as she was apparently unfamiliar with the specific omni tool she was using and then waiting for a second as the comm in her omni tool linked up with the headset in her helmet.

"Carrietta Shepard I presume," at her nod Hackett continued "I'm Major Steven Hackett-I'm here to rescue you."

The girl's helmeted head tilted slightly.

"What took you so long?"

 **ssssss**

As Carrie sat in the infirmary while Doctor Lan examined her, she found her mind drifting back to the man she had killed on that freighter.

Both Hackett and Anderson had assured her that it was self defence after she had related the story to them-but still, she felt guilty about it.

She also wished she knew just who had taken her, maybe Hackett would be able to tell her something she hoped as she saw the Major talking to the Professor outside.

"Okay Miss Shepard, I've finished the examination," Lan reported as he applied medi gel to her various cuts, scrapes and burns and Carrie grimaced as she waited for the burning sensation to fade "Just let me finish treating your scrapes and you can get dressed."

A minute later Lan was done and Carrie pulled on the clothes that Maria had brought for her.

Speaking of Maria-she seemed to be favouring her right arm and for some reason she seemed deep in thought as though something was troubling her.

 _I'll have to ask her about that,_ Carrie decided _Hopefully I can do something to help._

"Okay Major-I'm dressed," Carrie called as she finished pulling her clothes on "I know you're waiting to come in, I can hear you and Chambers talking."

A moment later the door opened and Major Hackett walked in, looking serious but also hopeful.

"Before we discuss the matter at hand I just wanted to let you know that the Fifth fleet picked up the shuttle that escaped from the lab ship where you were being held," Hackett told her "Unfortunately the occupants of that shuttle sealed the hatches and by the time we were able to get them open almost everybody on board had taken a cyanide pill-Donald Hargenson included. The one exception was a young man who apparently had already been shot in the head by one of the others-execution style."

"Cyanide again," Carrie noted in mild frustration "Dammit, Hargenson suffered as I did and I hoped that maybe-."

"That maybe you could help him?" at her nod Hackett continued "I'm pretty sure there was nothing you could have done."

"Yeah," Carrie agreed reluctantly.

"Miss Shepard-I wanted to discuss something with you," Hackett informed the young girl "You have a new life in front of you now-have you given thought to what you want to do with this second chance?"

"I know I should do something to make up for Prom Night," Carrie replied with a shrug "I have thought that maybe I'd like to protect others who are still victims."

"Well in that case," Hacket suggested, just a hint of a smile in his usually serious eyes "Have you considered a career in the military?"

Carrie was quiet for a minute and during that time Hackett could quite clearly see the wheels turning in her head, finally she spoke.

"I suppose it makes sense," she admitted "For now I'll tentatively say that I probably will do as you suggest, but first I need to finish my therapy sessions and get my head on straight. There's also something I need to put behind me once and for all."

"Of course," Hackett agreed "You've been through an ordeal Miss Shepard, take all the time you need. But there is one thing I'd like to clarify for you just to add some perspective."

"Yes Major?"

"Biotics such as yourself aren't indentured to military life but you people are pretty well documented," Hackett pointed out "Shouldn't you be getting paid if people are going to be prying into your affairs?"

"I suppose that is a valid point," Carrie admitted as Hackett gave her a polite nod, then turned and left.

"David?" Carrie called out.

"Yes Carrie?" Professor Chambers called back.

"There's something I need to discuss with you."

"What is it?" Chambers asked as he walked in.

"I did some reading about how I was cleared, I wanted to know the full story," Carrie informed the professor "I found out about the memorial site in Chamberlain and I realised that there's something I need to do before I can move on. I need to go back to Chamberlain."

"For what purpose?" Chambers asked.

"To visit the memorial and apologise to the ghosts in that place," Carrie told him "To visit my mother's grave and finally put that nightmare behind me. It's the only way I'll be able to move on-and my victims deserve for me to acknowledge my sins and make amends for them."

"Okay," Chambers agreed "I'll make the arrangements."

 **sssss**

Unknown location.

"Sir, I have the report for you on the rogue Cerberus cell," reported a dark haired girl in her late teens, speaking with a clear Australian accent "It seems that the White girl-who now goes by the surname Shepard-has already taken care of the problem for us."

"Very good Miranda," Jack Harper replied "We wont need to send you after them after all. And has there been any word on her fate?"

"It seems that she survived," Miranda Lawson reported as she handed over the PDA containing the report "The rescue mission that extracted her from the freighter was led by Major Steven Hackett."

"Then there is an excellent chance that he has approached her about enlisting," Harper noted as he took a drag on his cigarette "Humanity's enemies may soon find that their lives have gotten far more dangerous."

"I can do most of the things she can do," Miranda stated with obvious pride.

"Indeed you can," Harper agreed "It's fortunate that your father Henry Lawson was able to obtain that antique hairbrush when he was designing your genetic code."

"The biotics have proven useful," Miranda agreed "It's a shame that Donald Hargenson betrayed Cerberus-he had been a valuable operative in times past."

"He knew the consequences of his actions," Harper insisted calmly "And I did warn him that Carrietta Shepard is off limits."

"Yes Sir."

 **ssssss**

 **Episode closing theme; Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These by Melting Hearts.**


	7. Episode 7: Husk

**The Good Shepherd**

 **ssssss**

Mass Effect is owned by Bioware.

Carrie is owned by Stephen King.

The 2013 version of Carrie is owned by Metro Goldwyn Mayer productions and director Kimberly Pierce.

The only things I own are this crossover of the two and any original characters that may be featured.

 **sssssss**

 **Episode 7: Husk**

December 12th 2169, a shuttle headed for New Chamberlain, Maine.

Carrie found herself reflecting on just how much the world had changed as she looked out the window at the Maine Countryside below.

In her time Maine would have been under a thick blanket of snow at this time of year-so would New York, but global warming had made that a thing of the past.

The changed climate was probably the thing that Carrie was having the most difficulty adapting to-aside from the scant handful of people who had actually shown her some kindness she really missed the snow and how pretty it looked.

Of course if somebody had reminded her of the times her Mother had kicked her out of the house at this time of year she would have been singing a different tune.

The Earth's climate had undergone massive change-the northern ice cap was gone, the southern ice cap was half the size it had been in Carrie's time, sea levels were higher and snow only fell in the very coldest places at the very coldest times of year now.

This was Carrie's world now-she was even an official citizen of the Alliance.

Her new identity as Carrietta Jeanette Shepard was now official and had been downloaded to her omni tool.

"Credit for your thoughts Care," Maria interrupted from beside her.

"I miss the snow," Carrie confided.

"I could talk Chambers into taking you on a trip to Noveria if you want," Maria suggested.

"I don't think I could put up with the corporate BS," Carrie replied dismissively "It's just a silly longing really."

"Okay then," Maria decided "pop quiz to take your mind off it-you are the only known natural biotic among the human population and currently recognised as the first human biotic. However, there have been others who are suspected of having been naturally biotic but for whom their status could not be confirmed-five of them in fact. Considering that you are in fact related to four of them you should be able to guess who two of them were."

Carrie thought about this for a moment, remembering things she had heard from her mother-then she spoke.

"Well-my Great Grandmother obviously," Carrie deduced "Momma sometimes mentioned that she had 'the devil's power' but I think she might have had some deformity in her biotic lobe that was causing L2 like symptoms."

"What makes you say that?" Maria asked, her brows furrowing curiously.

"Well to hear Momma tell it she was batshit crazy," Carrie explained "And if I recall correctly insanity is one of the possible side effects of the L2 implants-um, no offence Maria."

"None taken," Maria smiled back "Still-consider the source."

"True," Carrie admitted reluctantly "The other one-My Dad?"

"Correct on both counts," Maria confirmed "As for the three that you wouldn't know about, they were; a young cousin of yours by the name of Annabel Jenks, Andrea Kolintz who is no relation to you and your much younger half sister Rachel Lang."

"All passengers please strap in," the pilot of the shuttle announced over the intercom "We'll be landing in New Chamberlain in five minutes."

 **ssssss**

Their landing at the transport terminal in New Chamberlain was uneventful as was acquiring public transport.

The first place they visited was a historical museum built on the site where Ewen High had once stood and it was at this place that Carrie now found herself looking at the current subject of her attention.

Finally she spoke.

"Why is there a life size hologram of Miss Desjarden here?"

"Greetings, I'm Rita-please allow me to be your virtual guide," the 'hologram' said pleasantly.

"It-talks?" Carrie asked hesitantly.

"I guess you've never seen a VI before," Maria observed with a small amount of amusement "They're still a new thing even in this time-at least in Alliance space. The other races have been using them for centuries."

"What is a VI exactly?" Carrie asked.

"It stands for Virtual Intelligence," Maria explained "The hologram you see is a form of voice controlled user interface, they can perform reasonably complex tasks efficiently provided they have been programmed for it."

"So 'Rita' here is a sentient computer whose appearance and personality are based off of Miss Desjarden?" Carrie guess.

"No-a VI isn't the same thing as an AI," Maria corrected gently "True artificial intelligences are illegal in Council space and thereby in Alliance space-a VI only has enough intelligence to accomplish tasks it has been specifically programmed for and there are very strict programming restraints placed upon it."

"Ah-I see," Carrie observed "So it has some intelligence but not enough to be truly sentient-kind of like a dog."

"Good analogy," Maria remarked "VIs are seeing their most use on warships nowadays."

"A spaceship controlled by talking holograms?" Carrie remarked "That conjures up quite a mental picture."

Maria chuckled at this.

"Most of them don't use the holographic personality interface," Maria elaborated "They just have the software-they're typically used to run the targeting systems for the weapons."

"It'd be hard to miss with something like that," Carrie remarked as she then turned back toward the VI that had sparked this conversation "Okay-um, Rita-could you point out the areas of interest please?"

"Behind me is the cafeteria, where you may purchase refreshments," the VI recited "The door directly opposite leads to the gift shop where souvenirs may be purchased. The short hallway on the left leads to the museum proper, where objects of historical significance to the event known as Black Prom are displayed while the short hallway on the right leads to the Archives where footage of Black Prom and events relevant to Black Prom may be viewed. Out the front of the building is the memorial statue to commemorate those who died on the night of May 27th 2013."

"Thank you Rita," Carrie nodded at the VI before turning in Maria's direction "I'd like to start with the museum proper if that's okay."

 **ssssss**

"This brings back memories," Carrie told Maria solemnly as she took in the various items on display that had once been used for everyday activities at Ewen High "Sadly not many of them are good."

Maria found herself watching the younger(well-technically much older when one considered the time Carrie had spent in stasis) girl soak up what had once been her present but was now everybody else's distant past.

 _It's been a century and a half since the tragedy of Black Prom,_ Maria thought solemnly _but for Carrie the memories are still fresh-still vivid. I sometimes-no often worry about her well-being._

As Carrie approached the cordon around an antique desk Maria watched her carefully, trying to get some clue as to her thoughts and feelings.

"This used to be Mr Ulman's desk," Carrie finally spoke up lowly so that only Maria could hear it "He was my English teacher."

"What was he like?" Maria whispered back.

"As bad a bully as any of the students," Carrie replied quietly "And I'm pretty sure he was banging Tina Blake."

"Please tell me you killed that bastard," Maria implored under her breath.

"No-he got out alive," Carrie denied "Tina bit the big one though."

"If you ask me the caption should read 'got what she deserved'," Maria opined quietly "The fact that she was screwing with her teacher is quite obviously why he went along with that shit."

"Maybe-but I was so damn cruel about it," Carrie lamented guiltily "I whipped her to death with a live electrical cable."

 _Do I tell her about the nanites?_ Maria wondered _Would knowing that her actions may have been influenced by them alleviate her guilt?_

"Didn't she whip you with a nettle at Christian Youth Camp?" Maria instead countered quietly "Didn't she and Chris duck you again and again until you nearly drowned and the only reason you didn't drown was because the camp coordinator came to your rescue? Didn't she push you in front of an oncoming car, the driver of which barely managed to stop in time?"

"Yeah-she did those things," Carrie confirmed "But after what I did-how am I any better than her?"

"You feel bad about it for one thing," Maria explained "And you only did what you did because you were driven to it. Nobody drove Chris and her gang to bully you but plenty let it happen."

"I suppose so," Carrie admitted as she crossed her arms over her chest, her head tilted down "I doubt Chris or Tina felt any guilt for what they did. Every time I think about what they put me through I just feel so angry-I don't want to feel this way but I can't help it."

"But you feel remorse for killing them," Maria explained "That's what makes you better than them. Do you want to grab a bite to eat?"

"Let's check out the Archives first," Carrie suggested "I need to make sure that it's concrete in my mind just what I did and why I have to atone for it."

 **sssssss**

Carrie paused for a moment before she and Maria entered the archive room with the next group.

"Are you sure about this?" Maria asked "Nobody is going to force you to do this Carrie."

"I-I need to see with my own eyes," Carrie insisted "I can't run from this forever. I have to face it and then move past it."

"Maybe then you'll actually be able to enjoy Christmas," Maria suggested.

"My first real Christmas considering that Momma didn't allow a tree or presents," Carrie remarked with just a hint of a sad, wistful smile "As far as she was concerned that kind of materialistic activity was sinful, from her point of view it was meant to be about prayer and repentance-more than once I ended up in the closet on Christmas day. I hope this Christmas is better-the first of many better Christmases."

"I hope so," Maria agreed quietly "But Carrie-I don't know how to tell you this but-."

"What is it?" Carrie asked, a concerned look creasing her brow.

"This will probably be the only Christmas you get to spend with me," Maria told the young girl solemnly "I'm-dying."

"You're-what?" Carrie asked, the shock completely throwing her for a loop as her mind finally caught up "It's that damned implant isn't it?"

Maria's only response was a solemn nod.

"How-long do you have?" Carrie asked quietly.

"There's no way to know for sure," Maria told Carrie gently "But I've started experiencing bouts of partial paralysis and these attacks have begun to affect my breathing-if I don't receive a safer implant I'd be surprised if I lasted any longer than six months."

"It's not right," Carrie lamented quietly "You deserve better."

"You deserve better than what happened to you Carrie," Maria countered gently "Life's like that sometimes. Come on-if you really want to relive the guilt then let's get it over with."

 **sssssss**

Maria watched Carrie carefully as everybody took their seats in the Archive room ready for the selected footage to be shown.

"Now before we begin," the museum curator told everybody present "Carrietta Natalie White as you all know was a victim of the worst kind of abuse when she was alive. Unfortunately for those who liked to torment her she was also a natural biotic of immense power, a biotic savant-at seventeen she was powerful enough to rival the strongest Asari matriarchs. She also had a natural understanding of biotics that allowed her to perform feats that may seem like magic, but there is a scientific explanation for each one if one allows for mass effect fields and the way biotics can use them to distort space and time. Please feel free to name such a feat if you wish."

A hand was soon raised at the back.

Once the presenter acknowledged the man in question he spoke.

"Causing a localised hailstorm over the White Bungalow?"

"Ah yes-that's a popular one," the curator noted with a smile "The best explanation for that one relates to a biotic technique known as Singularity-Singularity as you know creates a localised gravity well intense enough to temporarily create an event horizon. This technique requires precise control of a mass attracting field but I digress-as the singularity draws in air that air is compressed to a significant degree, when used in humid environments this has been known to cause ice crystals to form from the water vapour in the air. Although that day was sunny Estelle Horan when interviewed many years later did mention that there were some clouds overhead-a large scale singularity created inside a cloud directly over the White Bungalow would have compressed the humid air of the cloud to the point of freezing the water vapour in it into ice-then gravity most likely did the rest."

Maria could see Carrie thinking hard about that one-most likely she had simply done it instinctively and hadn't given how she did it any thought.

Another hand was raised.

"Yes?"

"Melting a deadbolt closed?"

"This relates to a technique called Warp," the curator informed the audience "Another technique from the distortion branch of biotics by the way. Warp as you all know will shred organic flesh or delicate circuitry from the inside, but when it is used on solid metal objects it has a different effect-there is nothing to shred inside a solid piece of metal so instead it the friction causes the metal to heat up. Depending on the intensity of the warp used this can cause the metal to melt-and only a very small but very precise use of Warp would be required to melt a deadbolt."

Once again Carrie was deep in thought about this when Maria glanced over at her.

 _To think that other biotics have to learn this stuff,_ Maria thought in admiration for Carrie's natural talent-biotic savant was putting it mildly _she does it naturally._

Another hand was soon raised.

"The rain of stones that destroyed the White Bungalow?"

"I knew that one was going to come up," the curator noted seriously "when those stones were examined later they were found to be ordinary granite from a national park a short way outside of Chamberlain-a park that Miss White had visited on a school field trip. On Prom Night a couple of hikers were standing near a rocky outcropping in this national park and they swore that it was like gravity had turned off in that area causing rocks to float up into the air until they were out of sight. Many years later in an interview Sue Snell mentioned that her body had felt like it weighed five times as much when she was inside Carrie's house-the investigators who arrived later also noted that the way the house seemed to have collapsed was like it's weight had suddenly increased to the point that it couldn't remain standing."

After a time it became clear that there were no more questions, the presenter took note of this and nodded.

"Well then, let's review the footage-I should warn all of you that what you are about to see is extremely graphic and I don't just mean Black Prom. If any of you are squeamish in any way it might be in your best interests to leave."

 **ssssss**

Despite how much it clearly hurt and angered Carrie to relive these memories Maria could see that she was quite brave about it.

Black Prom wasn't shown straight away, instead the presentation started with some footage that provided examples of exactly what Carrie had to endure.

Some of this footage had come from surveillance cameras at Ewen High, as for the rest-well it turned out that the incident in the shower room wasn't the first time Chris had recorded an act of bullying committed against Carrie White.

Following the confessions of the surviving Ultras it had been revealed that the videos were still on YouTube and they had been seized as evidence-now they were kept as historical footage.

Halfway through the presentation a recording of the incident in which Tina had pushed Carrie in front of a car had come up-Chris obviously was the one operating the camera-as usual, and she was clearly egging Tina on.

"Chris was recording that?" Carrie hissed through clenched teeth as she glared daggers at the holographic screen.

"What a sick, twisted bitch," Maria agreed.

Most of the footage was harassment, but there was also petty theft, vandalism and physical violence including Jessica Upshaw hitting Carrie in the face with a hockey stick, Chris slamming her head into a locker, Nicky holding her while Lizzy beat her senseless and of course the deplorable incident in the shower room.

By the time the footage of Prom was shown nobody seemed to blame Carrie for snapping.

Maria however could see that Carrie was becoming more and more upset.

And partway way through the footage of prom, just after the terror twins got trampled while Carrie's biotics held them down and Freddy got nailed by a table the holo screen suddenly fizzled out without warning just as it was about to switch to one of the other sources of footage.

Maria looked over at Carrie, immediately catching sight of her horrified and guilty expression and the hand she was holding over her mouth.

"I'm so sorry about this," Carrie apologised meekly.

"It's okay-accidents happen," the museum curator told the young girl "If you need anything for the L2 headaches you let me know."

 **ssssss**

Professor Chambers rolled his shoulders as he seated himself at his computer and switched it on, in just a few seconds it was booted up with the word Processor, Spreadsheet, handful of games and Codex accessible on the holoscreen.

Pausing for a moment Chambers reached out and placed his right thumb against a small scan plate built into the top of the computer's chassis.

 **Scanning-biometrics recognised** an electronic voice reported **Professor David Chambers-encrypted files now available-encrypted software now available.**

A second later a multitude of new icons appeared screen, simulation programs for chemical reactions, interactions between cybernetics and flesh and the dynamics of Mass effect fields and biotic fields as well as other software and two data drives, all of which were previously invisible.

Reaching out to the screen, Chambers touched the icon marked 'Personal Journal'.

Waiting a moment for the audio recorder to turn on, Chambers began to speak.

"Personal Journal of Professor David Chambers-PHD, December 12th 2169," Chambers paused for a moment before speaking further "The examination performed on Carrietta White has yielded exactly the results we were hoping for, detailed medical scans of her biotic lobe have given us a thorough picture of exactly how this organ works in a natural human biotic.

Reverse engineering this for use in a biotic implant will be a challenge but I am certain it can be done-our technicians at Arcturus station have already begun work on the designs for the L3 prototype and will send it here for testing when it is ready."

Chambers paused for a second as he composed his thoughts before continuing.

"Discovering that Miss White is in fact alive was nothing short of a miracle, and it has allowed us to find the answer much faster that otherwise would have been possible.

On a personal note I pray that the prototype is ready soon, my assistant, Maria Wills has begun suffering bouts of paralysis and breathing difficulties because of the side effects caused by her L2 model implant, according to her physician-if she doesn't receive a safer implant soon her condition is terminal.

As for Miss White she is recovering from the ordeal she has suffered surprisingly well, she has changed her name-to what I will not record here-and her therapist, my wife Doctor Hannah Chambers, is confident that she will make a full recovery from her emotional trauma in time.

Major Steven Hackett believes that she will recover well enough to be fit for military service-he may be right.

One complication has arisen however-it was recently discovered that Miss White has dormant nanotechnology in her bloodstream, her body is breaking it down but if any of it leaves her body it seems to reactivate.

I have injected some of the nanites into two lab rats in the isolation lab, and over the course of a few days it has caused their aggression levels to almost quadruple, the nanites also seem to induce hallucinations.

Recently the process seems to have accelerated, between the last time I checked and the previous day I noted a further sixty percent increase in the aggression levels of both rats.

At the time the process began accelerating my omni tool's sensors detected massively elevated levels of adrenaline in both animals-leading me to believe that there is a link.

I'm gassing both rats-it's getting too dangerous to keep them alive.

Doctor Tate has suggested that we may need to consider placing Carrie in quarantine until her body finishes breaking down the nanites but I don't believe that will be necessary seeing as she seems to be resistant to their effects, however both she and Maria are probably right that I should tell Carrie about the nanotech in her blood.

I'll tell her when she gets back-Journal Ends."

Chambers shut off the recording software and leaned back with a brief sigh of resignation.

It was time to let Carrie know about that nanites-he knew that.

He just had to find the right words to do it.

 **ssssss**

After the holoscreen in the archive room was repaired and everybody was able to finish the solemn task of reviewing the footage the next stop was the memorial statue out the front of the museum.

Carrie was solemn and unmoving as she read through all of the names inscribed on the plaque at the base of the memorial until she reached the last name, whereupon she spoke three simple words.

"Please forgive me."

The names on that plaque would be burned into her memory forever.

Maria maintained a respectful silence throughout this.

After that they visited the old Chamberlain cemetery-stopping by a florist first so that Carrie could purchase a single white rose.

They briefly stopped by the grave that Carrie herself had rested in for a century and a half.

A part of Carrie wished that she were still in there-that she had died for real.

But the rest of her knew that this would solve nothing.

After that they soon located Margaret White's grave nearby.

Carrie approached the grave of her mother forlornly, placing the rose by the headstone and then stepped back.

"Goodbye Momma," Carrie whispered quietly "I love you-and I'm sorry that-I'm sorry that things ended the way they did."

Maria gave Carrie a simple, supportive smile and a nod.

"If she was alive and in her right mind I think she'd be proud of who you're becoming," Maria told Carrie.

"I hope so," Carrie replied as the two turned to leave.

That was when they felt the first vibration through the ground-coming from Margaret White's grave.

Another followed, then another-and then the grave seemed to collapse as a skeletal hand reached out of the ground, festooned with what could only be some kind of advanced cybernetics with just a few strips of blackened, desiccated flesh still clinging to the yellowed bone.

A bare skull with an unhinged jaw and just a few strands of dark hair still clinging to the scalp followed, then the rest of the skeleton, still dressed in the ragged remains of a nightdress that was familiar to Carrie, pulled itself out of the ground.

The whole skeleton was covered with shiny black cybernetics that clearly functioned as a substitute for muscles long since decayed and gray tubes and a nightmarish blue light shone from the empty eye sockets.

Carrie stood rooted to the spot in horror, her eyes wide with fear as her mind reeled from the nightmare unfolding before her-she wasn't seeing the cybernetic undead that stood before her though-she saw who it had once been.

"M-Momma?"

 **sssssss**

As Carrie stood frozen in horror at the thing that her mother had become the reanimated corpse let out an inhuman roar and charged-skeletal hands outstretched like claws to rend her flesh.

Carrie could have taken this nightmare down easily with her biotics-she could have crushed it to powder, torn it apart or smashed it a thousand different ways, but in spite of what this thing was now Carrie still saw it as who it had been.

Her mother-who she loved in spite of the abuse she had received from said mother.

"Carrie," the young girl dimly heard Maria shout "That's not your mother."

But Carrie still saw her mother-not the nightmarish creature that her mother's corpse had become.

This mindless techno zombie probably would have killed Carrie had not a slender, serpentine biotic field lashed out like a whip at that exact moment and sliced through the skeleton from right shoulder to left hip-dropping the walking corpse to the ground in two pieces.

Maria's cry of pain snapped Carrie out of her daze as she turned and caught sight of the other biotic sinking to her knees, her face a mask of pain as she held her head with her left hand while her right arm hung uselessly by her side-paralysed.

"D-dammit," Maria cursed.

Even rent in half the top half of the skeleton still dragged itself forward with it's remaining arm-but Carrie had realised at least intellectually that this was not her mother but a monster that was wearing her mother's former body.

A monster that needed to be put down for good.

"I'm sorry Momma," Carrie whispered quietly, tears moistening her cheeks as she reached out with her biotics and crushed the monster's skull-silencing it for good.

"Your mother was already dead Carrie," Maria weakly told the young biotic "You just put the corpse out of commission, that's all."

"Maria," Carrie called gently as she knelt beside the older girl "Are you all right?"

"Er-not so much," Maria admitted "Doc said I shouldn't use my biotics until I get a new implant-said it'd kill me faster."

Carrie's face took on a look of horror as realisation dawned.

"And because I hesitated-," a hand rose as Carrie covered her mouth "Oh no."

 _Okay,_ Carrie told herself firmly _beating yourself up isn't going to help, you need to pull it together and find a way to fix this._

Carrie glanced at the briefly reanimated corpse of her mother.

 _The Alliance military should probably seal this place off-the public doesn't need to see that little piece of horror._

Her mind made up-Carrie activated the comm built into her omni tool and paged Professor Chambers.

 **ssssss**

Four hours later.

Carrie waited anxiously for news outside the infirmary as Doctor Lan examined Maria to determine the extent of the neural damage.

Chambers was also waiting-also concerned but more composed about it.

Finally-after nearly an hour of waiting as she sipped on a hot drink Carrie heard the door hiss open and Maria walked out accompanied by the doctor.

"How is she doctor?" Chambers asked simply.

"She's getting some feeling back in her arm and the headache has died down," Doctor Lan informed the professor "But the degeneration has most definitely accelerated."

"It's my fault," Carrie lamented in little more than a whisper "I just-froze up and she had to step in and save me from having my throat torn out."

"Nobody is blaming you for this Carrie," Chambers told the young biotic "Mercenaries and pirates are one thing but what you had to face in that graveyard is something else entirely."

"Do we know how my mother was infected with the nanotechnology?"

"We're still trying to determine how it might have happened," Chambers told Carrie "Your mother's remains have been sent to Arcturus Station for analysis-we're also digging into the old records to see if any clues can be found. One thing we can be sure of is that it happened before you were born."

"How can you be-? You found nanotech in my bloodwork didn't you?" Carrie realised "Why didn't you tell me? It might have been useful for me to be warned about the fact that I'm a walking time bomb."

"Carrie-you're not going to turn into one of those mindless-husks," Chambers assured the young girl "The nanotech in your blood is inactive-it was burned out on Prom Night when your biotics went out of control and your healing ability makes you resistant to it's effects, thus keeping the nanites from reactivating and repairing themselves. Your body is even breaking the nanotech down-in just under three months it should be all gone"

"But I'm still an infection risk," Carrie noted solemnly "Maybe you should have let me know so that I could be placed in quarantine until my immune system finishes dealing with the nanites."

"There is only a risk of infection if you bleed on somebody," Chambers assured Carrie "As long as those nanites remain inside you they can't reactivate-given this fact I'd say that the only times they were active inside you before Prom Night were when your adrenaline levels were elevated."

"Adrenaline makes them more active," Carrie deduced "Safe money says they increase aggression right?"

"Yes-to a massive degree," Chambers confirmed "The build up to this after infection is gradual unless adrenaline is involved-then it accelerates dramatically. They also appear to induce hallucinations."

"That time in the closet-," Carrie noted thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?" Chambers asked "Which time in the closet? If I understand there were a lot of them."

"About two weeks before prom," Carrie explained "The day of the shower room incident Mother sent me to the closet for 'having lust filled thoughts'. I was pretty worked up when she threw me in there and I could have sworn that I saw the Jesus figure on the wall of the closet bleeding. That must have been a hallucination caused by the nanites-they cause hallucinations all right, but not just any hallucinations-they prey on your fears."

"You're afraid of the sight of blood?" Chambers guessed.

"Not so much-but I do find it distasteful," Carrie corrected "But remember my freak out earlier in the day and what it was about? These nanites-or whatever is controlling them may have been trying to capitalise on that. In fact I'd say it's more than likely considering that I hallucinated the blood coming from a figure of Christ as I was praying to God."

"Professor-you are certain that the nanotech is inactive right?" Maria asked as she walked out of the exam room.

"I'm certain," Chambers confirmed "And it won't be long before it's gone."

"In the meantime," Maria suggested to Carrie "Keep exercising your biotics, push your limits."

"Don't worry-I intend to," Carrie assured her fellow biotic.

"Any idea why Carrie's robo zombie mother reactivated when Carrie got near her grave and not before that?" Maria asked.

"If I had to guess I'd say that it was the presence of a biotic field," Chambers reasoned "It seems obvious to me that whoever or whatever did this to her mother programmed her for the specific purpose of eliminating human biotics. Whoever these heartless monsters are they obviously see humanity as a threat."

"It would explain why she freaked out over Carrie's biotics," Maria agreed "but what about the other aspects of her religious mania?"

"I'm sure an explanation for that will reveal itself with enough digging," Chambers stated-his faith in research obvious.

"You said that the nanites in me were burned out on Prom Night?" Carrie asked as something occurred to her.

"Yes," Chambers confirmed.

"I think I can pinpoint the exact moment when it happened," Carrie elaborated.

"You can?" Maria asked.

"Yeah," Carrie explained "You see, from just after I realised that Tommy was dead-right up to just before my powers stopped running wild on the walk home I could have sworn that I heard a voice in my mind, one that I was convinced was God for some reason that I can't explain-telling me to kill along with the insane level of rage burning through me. Then the voice suddenly stopped and my anger died away to be replaced by guilt within minutes-at the moment that happened I could have sworn I heard static in my mind for a moment."

"Sounds like a form of indoctrination," Chambers noted "You never mentioned this before."

"What was I going to say?" Carrie asked defensively "It would have sounded like I was making excuses."

"Point taken," Chambers relented "It seems obvious that your Mother was hearing the same voice most of the time, meaning that it wasn't so much the nanites controlling you and you mother as them allowing something else to control you. What did the voice sound like?"

"Slightly metallic and deep, so deep that it sounded like it could shake the Earth, and I mean the whole Earth," Carrie explained "No emotion detectable in it but it sounded like it was used to getting it's way."

"I see," Chambers nodded as he note the information down using the note taker on his omni tool "Given this new information it's debatable just how much of Black Prom was actually you and how much was this intelligence controlling the nanites. Possibly it was hoping that if it forced you to kill then the guilt that the act of killing caused you would destroy you mentally."

"I probably still would have snapped," Carrie remarked thoughtfully " But it might not have been as bad without these nanites in my blood. In any case the indoctrination should have forced my mother to kill me when I was born-but she fought it. For seventeen years she fought it-her love for me gave her the strength to do that, that's who my Momma really was and that's who I'll always remember her as. And I-I killed her."

Maria placed a comforting hand on Carrie's shoulder and offered a genuine smile of understanding.

"It was an act of mercy," Maria assured her "Your free will subjugated? Twisted into an insane mockery of your former self? That's no way to live."

"I guess so," Carrie admitted "I just hope she's at peace now."

"I should have told you about this sooner," Chambers apologised sadly "I'm sorry I didn't Carrie-are you still upset with me."

"I'm a little-perturbed," Carrie admitted "But it's nothing that I can't work off on a few practise dummies. Then I plan to call Emily and talk about something-anything that isn't related to zombies or cybernetics in any way."

 **ssssss**

Some time later Carrie walked into her dormitory at the institute-still dressed in her exercise sweats and headed for the shower.

 _I know that Momma said showers were evil,_ Carrie reflected with a slight bit of nostalgia _but as it turns out she was wrong about a great many things-not that I can blame her seeing as her mind was scrambled by those nanites._

A short while later the sound of water splashing on tiles was heard and a while after that the water shut off.

A few minutes later Carrie emerged wearing her favourite nightdress, her hair still wet from the shower.

Sitting down on her bed-the comfort of which was still a new thing to her, Carrie activated her omni tool and paged Emily Wong's Extranet address using the videophone software.

A moment later Emily replied, linking their omni tools through the extranet as the younger girl's face appeared on the holo screen of Carrie's omni tool.

"Hi Care," Emily greeted her cheerfully, the cheerfulness dimming slightly as she noticed the weariness of somebody who has just survived a battle about her friend "Rough day?"

"You could say that," Carrie admitted "I went back to Chamberlain-."  
"Why would you go back there Carrie?" Emily asked, her expression betraying concern for the older girl's well being and exasperation that she would put herself through reliving such horrible memories.

"I can't run from it," Carrie countered quietly "I had to face my past and begin to come to terms with it-and toward the end of me redeeming myself I plan to enlist."

"Enlist? As in Military? Carrie-that's dangerous," Emily protested "You could get killed."

"By rights I should be dead already," Carrie reminded her friend "I have a second chance and I don't plan to waste it. I plan to use my gifts to protect people instead of-."

"That wasn't your fault Care-why would you put yourself through reliving such horrible memories?" Emily protested "Surely you could have dealt with this another way."

"I owed it to my victims," Carrier replied simply "Reliving that footage was pretty upsetting-but that's not what really got to me. When I visited my mother's grave-something happened."

"Something as in-what?" Emily asked.

Carrie chuckled slightly, but there was no humour in it.

"If I told you you wouldn't believe me. In any case I'd feel really good about discussing something else entirely."

 **ssssss**

Unknown Location.

Jack Harper set his glass of Kentucky Bourbon down on the wide arm of his chair before picking up his cigarette from where it rested on the edge of the ashtray and taking a drag on it.

A flashing orange hologram in the shape of a ring above the arm of his chair.

A single tap on the holographic control was all that was needed, bringing a holographic screen to life in front of him, the face on the screen that of his research head at the Teltin facility on Pragia.

"Just giving you an update Sir," the tech reported "We are close to isolating the gene responsible for Carrie White's immunity to Omega Enkaphalin-once we determine which gene it is devising the nanosurgical procedure to incorporate it into other subjects should be fairly straightforward."

"Very good doctor," Harper acknowledged "Keep me updated."

"One more item of interest was found in Miss White's blood sample Sir," the research head added.

"What else was found?"

"We found traces of dormant nanotechnology in her blood," the research head told Harper "This may be of interest to one of our other projects."

"Do you have enough of her blood on hand to extract a sample?"

"Yes Sir."

"Good," Harper told the Head researcher "Extract a sample of this nanotech, then send the sample to our hidden facility on Farnuri for analysis."

 **sssssss**

A forgotten Storage room in the historical museum in New Chamberlain.

Right at the back of this storage area was a worn, leather bound book, it's leather binding was cracked and yellowed with age, the writing on the label that adorned it's cover was faded but still legible.

If somebody had read the writing on the book's cover it would have read 'Personal Journal of Margaret Brigham.'

 **ssssss**

 **Episode Closing Theme: 'Circle' by Slipknot.**


End file.
